Strangeness Across the Realms
by kings3476
Summary: A dark lord rises, a king of a dark realm stirs, and a prophecy becomes tangled beyond all reconciliation. Whether at war or school; one must always expect the strangeness across the realms. DP-HP Crossover with slight AU for HP and MAJOR AU for DP. its my first fanfic so please be gental.
1. prolouge

_**As always, I own neither Harry Potter nor Danny Phantom, just a fan of both with too much time on his hands**_

 _Prologue- the storm before the call_

 **Amity park- June 25 approximately 30,000 feet in the air**

' _Breathtaking as ever'_

An exasperated sign broke the silence of his serene view, but only for a short few seconds until all he could hear was the occasional boom of thunder in the large platform of cloud beneath him. Daniel Fenton, or Daniel Nightingale ' _still getting use to that'_ was resting above the clouds as he watched the starry night sky, a habit he picked up whenever he was troubled. He was a young 14, slim but a bit tall for his age, but considering his father size that was to be expected. He had long raven black hair that was always seemed wild and unruly no matter what he did, his friend tucker always said that "before you dude, I had never met anyone who's hair look so naturally anime." It also didn't help that of his "condition" meant that he couldn't cut it shorter; it always grew back to the same length, forcing him to keep it tied into a good foot and a half log ponytail and pray it never grew beyond its apparent minimum length. He did however keep it free in the front as a few stray bangs that nearly hid his eyes proved, but his hair always seemed to be able to hide his eyes, not that it mattered anymore. Despite what many would call beyond perfect sight, Danny wore a black blindfold whose knot was hidden under his long black hair. He started wearing the blindfold 3 years ago, when his powers and form had developed to the point that he need to hide one of his more serious changes, telling concerned peers that it was an unfortunate necessity after a home accident. Many had offered condolences and the occasional helping hand but it was unnecessary as Danny no longer required his eyes to see, and even then he could use his powers look past the cloth, as he did now. As odd as the blindfold was, it was tame compared to the oddity of the rest of his outfit.

On his feet he wore thick black leather, silver toed boots with silver plated armor ling up the trim of the boots that ended half way up to his knees, the edging the boots were covered in white and silver fur. The silver plating seemed embroidered with strange runic symbols the glowed a soft blue in the moon light. He wore thick, loose, black cloth pants that, while made with a similarly "unconventional" material as his boots, held no strange markings or designs and was tucked into the lining of his boots. Adorned on his torso was a strange, Victorian era black overcoat, trimmed in the same white and silver fur as his boots. It was closed with similarly embroidered buttons and silver tassels that lined the left half of his chest. The coat itself was bound in place by a thick black leather belt that held an interwoven silver-plated lining that was also embroidered with similar runic symbols and trimmed with the same fur. The coats lower section hung below the belt and had no tassels or buttons, ending just below his knee. On the coats back was a gilded and golden family crest, a golden shield with a golden rosebud in its center, the golden blood blossom, symbol of the Nightingale family. On his hands was a pair of thick black leather gloves, trimmed with fur, sleeves tucked into the lining and one central silver plate on both hands that held a runic circle in the center. On his right shoulder he wore a black leather shoulder pad, trimmed in fur, and with a silver carving of a wolf jetting from the center. The coat had a short, fur trimmed collar and fur trimmed black hood lay barely hidden by his hair, the crown of the hood was adorned in dark gray leather attachment sewn into the cloak, giving the hood a sharp point. Inside his coat he wore a black turtleneck, unnoticed save for the visible long collar on his neck. He sat there, in his strange attire, looking past his black cloth barrier, reveling in the majestic sight of the stars and trying to settle his troubled mind. Yesterday, after the usual madness of his small town and after his lessons with his instructors in the ghost zone (or the Nevernear as some from the town coven were convinced was the realms true name, despite being told to the contrary by their master,) he had sensed … well a disturbance. Danny gave an annoyed frowned, he didn't want use that word to describe it, even more so after Sam's crack at him being too "one with the force obe-won" but he really couldn't think of any other way to describe it and despite the joke, he could sense that she felt it as well, and was just as unnerved. It wasn't that it was powerful per say, strong in its own right but nowhere near beyond anything they had faced before, it was its nature that left him feeling … uneasy.

First it was dark, which wasn't that surprising, but different than the usual darkness they had dealt with. He was adept at dealing with similar darkness, which seemed to spring from sociopathic emotions, feelings of using others to their own means. But this was different; this was beyond lacking general empathy. Where before was one who would only focus on others to achieve their ultimate goal; this seemed as if the destruction of others was its goal. That alone was unsettling, but as he focused, he felt disgusted by this presence. When sensed a presence (or aura, as he was told was the "technical" name of this extra sense,) the said signature seemed to hold its own uniqueness about it, not unlike a scent which, given his being came to no surprise he could detect, but never before had he felt an aura as putrid as this. The aura of ghosts were more pungent then humans, due to the energy they constantly emitted, this was true of wizards and witches, yet despite that, not even the spirits of the dead were this horrid. Even Vlad, with all his emotional ilk and the diseased nature of his form, felt more sickly then horrid. This, this was like trekking through a field of corpuses. He felt nothing but decay and death, as if unearthing a recent grave. Danny shivered in disgust as he signed: With something this disturbed, he wanted to be as comfortable as possible.

Two white embers sprung forth from the top back corners of Danny's head with another larger flame on his lower back at the base of his spine. The flames atop his head flash upwards by three inches and quickly traveled forward parallel with the curve of his head until stopping three inches past his face, leaving in their path white, stone like horns that ended in an Icy blue tip. The flame at his back also shot outward in a one foot diameter circle that was ever so slightly decreasing as the flame traveled. Finally the flame stopped, leaving behind a large circular tail that was as long as Danny was tall, reptilian in motion and covered in thick black fur, with an icy blue ruffle of fur at the tip. Next his ears were engulfed in white flame, which spread directly past the back of his head and stopped 2 inches away from his skull. The flames disappeared and left him with elongated, canine like ears that ended in a sharp point, the outer skin was covered in black fur and the inner walls of his ears had thick, tuffs of white fur. His teeth then flashed white as each respective tooth sharpened to a point with the canines growing into sharp fangs. Underneath his gloves and boots, Danny could feel his fingers and toes grow long white claws with icy blue tips. With his tail, horns, teeth, claws and ears finally out, Danny signed once more and said aloud "Much better," as he closed his eyes and tipped his head back in contentment. He opened them a few seconds later and saw his horns in his peripheral vision and with a quick flick of his tail, brought it in front of him. He looked at his inhuman qualities and signed once more, marveling at how long 5 years can seem.

He was 9 when it happened, two months after his family was approached by the local coven, the order of Cronos, about Jazz's magic. After a short demonstration and an explanation of Jazz's magic, Danny's parents were ecstatic, both proud of Jazz and excited about what the existence of magic would mean for their own research. The coven wizards left, saying that they would return with more information on Jazz's training and schooling, but not before leaving leavening a strange cryptic letter from their master. It was a mall note of congratulations, and notice that he would soon approach the family with both an offer, and an apology. Danny had to snort at the memory, back then it had confused him and his parents, now all it did was make him wonder how his master was constantly able to sneak these hints and warnings without the interference of the Observants. And so two months past with Jazz gaining everything a young witch needs, spell books, a wand, and enough potion ingredients to satisfy her supernaturally curious parents. Their parents had asked members of the coven to test Danny, to see if he also had magic, when they were told that unless something magically inclined were to happen around him, they were legally barred from testing him until his eleventh birthday. Danny brought his head down; it seemed fate decided that was too long to wait. With the discovery of their daughter's magic, the Fenton parents dived right to work, inspired by the possibilities of magic. As such they decided to rework or finish many old projects, including their old dream turn nightmare, the ghost portal. Danny shuttered as he remember that day, a simple dare turned so wrong. He remembered the wine of the machine powering up, his vison being engulfed in pure green, to leave nothing pain. He remembered wakening in his room white hared, tanned skinned, laying on his bed and in his pajamas as his parents, friends and sister rushed to his side the second he awoke. Two days, they said, he had slept for 2 days, with them running around, having no clue what to do until _he_ showed up on the front door not one hour after the accident. Danny remembered sitting in bed confused, who was _he_? he wondered until the man of the hour walked through his bedroom door. Danny couldn't help but remember the surprise he felt when he saw clockwork for the first time. In the years since, his presence had become a great comfort to him, but back then nothing could compare to the shock he felt when he saw what was clearly a ghost walk into his room. The man was tall, shorter than his father but still a good head above his mother. He wore a long open purple robe with a gilded gold trim and hood that he kept up, but not so much as to hide his face. Underneath he wore a dark gray suit vest with golden buttons on top of what seemed to be a simple white cloth, midlevel style, closed neck tunic that to had a golden trim. He had on a simple pair of gray dress-pants help up by a black, gold bucked belt and black, well shined dress shoes with golden buckles. On his hands he wore black cloth gloves with a golden hem and a symbol of a hallow golden gear with a gilded golden CW in the middle. His glowing blue skin, pupiless red eyes and the soft, white, ethereal light that surrounded his person, similar to his own soft glow exposed his ghostly nature. He had a strange jagged scar over his left eye and had a rather impressive beard of white hair that reached just past his Adam's apple, which framed what seemed to be a middle aged man's faces, and a small friendly smile. In his hand he held a 5 foot long metal staff that ended to the floor in a point, with a collection of Turing gears and clocks framing one large gilded clock face in the center end of the staff. Despite his clearly spectral visage, he seemed approachable and friendly. He walked to Danny's bed and crouched on one knee and said,

"Hello young Phantom." He spoke slowly with a soft echo in his voice, sounding as ancient as he was powerful. "I have been waiting to meet you for a very, very long time."

"5 years later and that still sounds way to cliché." Danny couldn't help but chuckle, yea that meant Clockwork would punish him for being disrespectful, but if he continued feeling this uneasy, a few more training sessions would be a nice distraction. Danny moved his tail way from his face and left it to freely ungulate below him as he brought his right hand forward. In a bright flash of dark green, Danny summoned his staff. It was 4 feet long and made of a black wood that branched off at both ends, at one end the resulting roots weaved together into a nice, small diamond shaped tip. At the other, the branches were thicker and weaved and caped around a six inch long, three inch wide hexagonal crystal that glowed a bright Icy blue, escribed where an assortment of glowing white runic carvings. Clockwork had given him this staff a few days after Danny had met him and begun his training in both his magical and ghostly abilities, though not solely by Clockwork himself. Clockwork had trained him in his core magical studies, Transfigurations, Charms, etcetera as well as some more unorthodox skills such as Occlumency. The rest of his magical studies such as Potions, Herbology and such were handled by the ghost writer, who also took over Jazz's training, who like always was breaking records in both magical and muggle studies. The ghostly half of his training was different. As Danny grew and developed more of his power, he developed 3 core energies to utilize, the First was fel energy. Fel was essentially raw ectoplasmic energy, the base energy of the ghost zone itself. Other beings from mindless ghouls born from the zone to apparitions made from the mental imprints of the dearly departed could utilize ectoplasmic energy with a few differences in color and application based on the individual in question. Fel energy, Clockwork said, was different. Spirits who used basic ecto-energy could only do so because the zone infused them with it, making up their form and without some periotic intake, and these entities would collapse. Fel energy, on the other hand, could not be infused into a person, it had to be generated by the individual themselves, meaning they had to have the ability to self-generate it, an ability that Danny had. He could still use basic eco-energy, but it still just came from his fel energy. It also couldn't change color, always appearing black and green. His next energy source was cryokinetic energy.

This energy was self-explanatory, giving him the power to generate at control ice. Clockwork couldn't teach him how to use this energy, so they instead enlisted Frostbite of the Far Frozen to help with Danny's training. A task Frostbite and his people did in the only way they could, by being as loud and as dangerous as they could. Danny smiled as he remembered the first time Clockwork brought him to the Far Frozen. With as much collateral damage and yelling he and the yetis did, he never felt more at home. His smile faded as he remembered his last energy, a power won rather than developed. Danny Lifted his left hand and reached inside his turtle neck and brought out a silver chain necklace that had laced in it 2 rings. One silver with a black round face on tope with the golden blood blossom of the Nightingale. When he entered the magical word, Clockwork had revealed to him and his family their heritage. Centuries ago, the Nightingale where a family of wizards in Great Britain, a family of researchers and hunters, that used their own unique brand of spells and techniques to hunt down spectral beings that would wreak havoc throughout Europe. Near the beginning of the 17th century, the family slowly started to deconstruct as more and more of their youth were born as squibs to the point that the family was ostracized by their pureblood peers and forced to the new colonies. There, with little to no magic left and no really magical government to help, they had no choice but to reintegrate with the puritan muggles, hide their magical background and changed the family name to Fenton. However, despite having no Magic left, and separated from the magical community completely, the family still seemed bent on hunting and discovering the secrets of the spectral world, a dream passed down today. Clockwork ended the tail by handing over a key to an old mansion, hidden a few miles from Salem, where the Nightingale held a wealth of galleons and magical artifacts to be freely given to either Jazz or Danny should they desire to take up the family name, provided the local shades that haunted the home permitted. Jazz declined, while she respected her family history, she herself was no hunter, being the first to say she didn't have the best aim, a sentiment Danny whole heartedly agreed after the 10th time see inadvertently sucked him into the thermos. Danny would groan as he remembered all the times she had sucked him into a thermos, memories made worse when he remembered tuck was far worse than Jazz with the thing. But as captivating as the Nightingale family ring was, his attention was on the other ring in his hand. The ring of rage, or ring of the king as it was also known, hung from the chain, looking quite different then when it was worn by its previous owner.

It still had a black band, but instead of a large green skull at its face was a top-down view of wolfs face carved in silver. The ring changed drastically, as did the crown of fire which now rested on his head in ghost form. He had won them when he bested Pariah Dark. Vlad, in his " _Infinite Wisdom"_ decided that he could best the sleeping god king and take his power. Danny scowled at the short sightedness of the elder halfa, sure he prepared as best he could, collected the strongest wards he could, empowered both his spells and abilities to be at his strongest, but he still should have known to some degree the horror such an action would bring. Danny closed his eyes again, the battle was just 2 years ago not enough time to forget the terror of his opponent. The battle was fierce, both allies and enemies stood with him against Pariah and his armies. In the end he had pushed his way to Pariah and fought him to the death. It wasn't the first time Danny had to take a spirits life, beyond his usual rouges gallery he found horrifying spirits whose evils could only be stopped with their end. Even still, the fight with Pariah was something else entirely. Those early spirits challenged his morality in take a life, in his fight with Pariah his only fear was for his life and the lives of his loved ones. Pariah was brutal, the fight nearly killing him in the process, but in the end, he won and struck Pariah down. He remembered waking up to a familiar scene with his loved ones, only within the icy medical bay of the Far Frozen, with the ring on the counter next to him and the crown stuck to his ghost forms head. Clockwork explained that by beating the king, Danny had taken his place. He asked Clockwork why the ring had changed and the crown was now unremovible. Apparently the artifacts of the king reflect the current king at the time, bestowing the ruler greater strength and a power of their own. In Pariahs hands, he gained the power to create endless thralls and the artifacts were easily removed. In Danny's case, the crown would stay stuck to his head till he was killed, and he gained the "true power of the realm." He dropped the necklace back down his shirt and raised his hand up with his palm face up, with his fingers curled upwards. After barley a thought, a white fire erupted in Danny's hand; it was neither hot nor cold, merely there. It was his third Energy, the flames of Tartarus, the ghost zones true name. The White flames had one core property, Obliteration. He could use it to imbue his magic and other abilities, just as he could with his other energies, but the white flames true power was to purge and destroy only what he willed. Shortly after the battle, Clockwork brought Danny to the Acropolis and introduced him to Pandora, to teach him how to use his new flame. Pandora was as intimidating as she was sweet, a phrase Danny thought that couldn't apply to anyone but her. She was strict in her lessons and an absolute joy to hang around. Danny signed one more time as he killed the flame in his and stood up. He looked out the stars again, smiling to himself and spoke out load,

"If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were trying to sneak up on me."

"Then it's a good thing you know me better." came a light, friendly reply behind him. "Although, I doubt anyone can sneak up on you anymore Mr. Bloodhound."

A few meters away stood/floated Samantha Manson in ghost form. A few years back, before Pariah, and while Danny was on an errand for Clockwork, Undergrowth had attack Amity Park. By that time both she and Tucker had their magic revealed and had been getting their own lessons from Clockwork, ghost writer, Jazz and many other members of the Coven as was tradition. Sam, head strong and not wanting to just sit and wait for Danny had charged forward, wand ready, and geared with newly upgraded, magical Fenton tech. She still was, however, hopelessly out matched and was caught, beyond anyone's power and at the mercy of undergrowth. He had infused in her a part of his own essence, giving her a portion of his power and turned her against Amity. When Danny returned, he fought Undergrowth and, using his cyrokinesis and magic, defeated and banished Undergrowth back to the zone. The city was saved, but as Sam woke from undergrowth's control, she found herself changed as well, becoming a halfa with a biokinetic core. Sam had long forgone her small hair clip, allowing her hair to flow down her back. In her ghost form it was styled in a long, loose braid, held in place by various vines and leafs. Her eyes were still pupiless green, with black mascara and her signature purple lipstick. She wore a closed neck, long sleeved, dark green tunic with the trim in gilded gold and black. On top of that she wore light green dress vest with a pattern of interwoven leafs, and black wood buttons. She wore long black pants with large purple embroidered leafs, with a black cloth belt with a silver spider buckle. On her feet and hands were similar boots and gloves of Danny, but with the boots only coming past her ankles and the gloves being fingerless. Danny still remembered the ringing in his large canine ears after Sam screamed at Clockwork for giving her leather when he started her halfa training. After letting her get the speech out of her system, Clockwork had assured her that the leather and other materials in both her and Danny's equipment were made of synthetic materials created in the ghost zone and design for the purpose of both spectral and magical protection and that no animals were harmed in their making. That had cowed her as she took the leathers, bring a smirk to their master's face and still pained grimace to Danny. The last item of her attire was a large bright green cloak seemingly made of interwoven leafs and vines with a hood hanging in the back, clasped in a silver broch that had a glowing ice crystal, made by Danny after he had attained a certain degree of control over his cryokinesis. In her hand she help a short staff of dark brown wood that was 2 and a half feet long, with a glowing green orb shining through a thick, twisted knot in the wood at the top of the staff.

Danny turned and marveled at her ghost form. Visibly, nothing had really changed from her human form. Her hair was styled differently and she had an instantaneous wardrobe change, but apart from her eyes and the soft white glow around here, she looked perfectly human, nothing anywhere near as drastic as Vlad, then there was him. It was quite a shock to him when he woke up one day and discovered he was growing horns and a tail. He blasted all the way to Clockwork for answers, the door as always opened right as he arrived with the time master waiting. Apparently, he was an animagus wizard, or a wizard with an animal form. However, as a result of the accident messing with his magic, his animagus form had infused with his human form, changing from a white wolf to a mixture of wolf and dragon. Clockwork told him that both his human and ghost form would be effected, changing his appearance to a humanoid like version of his spirit, with colorings depending on the form he was in. He said that with training he could control the transformation, appearing almost completely human again or completely into his animal and back, like any animagus could. He was sent to the kingdom of Argon, a kingdom he and his friends freed to seek Dora's guidance. After a year, he could finally control the transformation, except for one thing, his eyes. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't turn his eyes back, they were permanently changed. His sclera had turn black, with his pupils silted as his erases grew and would glow with any extreme emotion, which wasn't new, but instead of just green, they glowed with the color of the form he was in, blue in human, green in ghost. It was his major reason for wearing the blindfold in the first place, even going so far as to enchant it so that only he could remove it. He was devastated when he found he couldn't change his eyes back, while he could contain the rest of his form, the mere sight of the blindfold everyday was …

"Don't" Danny broke from his musings to look at Sam again. While he was lost in thought, she had walked/hovered over to him and firmly grabbed his free shoulder. He looked at her; she had a warm, sad smile that despite its gentleness held a firm presence. "I know that look on your face, and you know you shouldn't think any less of yourself for this." For what seemed the hundredth time Danny signed, deflating slightly, she knew him so well.

"I know Sam," He said, feeling far better than before, she always had this way about her that cheered him up immensely "It's just … when I force them down ... I can still feel them just under the skin, like I'm always wearing an old rubber mask." She had let go of his shoulder and he had turned to the east, in the direction of the disturbance. "And when I finally remove that stifling mask, it feels so good … but then I look at myself, look at what feels natural and I can't help but feel less …" "Human" she finished for him, her voice laced with a deep understanding. She may have a more human like ghost form, but she too was untimely a halfa as well, she knew just as well as him how stuffy the act can be.

"I know its ridicules, but it's still how I feel, we can logically deduce feeling like this is stupid, but no matter what, instinct can't work well with logic." And once more he signed, but more in a mocking fashion then his earlier breaths.

"Instinct might not be able to work with logic, but it sure can with determination." Sam boldly stated as she walked up to stand next to him "Just remember you're no less human than anyone else, no less than me." He snorted at that, earning him a strong punch to the shoulder "Don't you get cynical with me Mr. Lone wolf-Dragon!" She said, crossing her arms with a playful smirk.

Danny meanwhile rubbed his shoulder and said "Am I Mr. Bloodhound or Mr. Lone wolf-dragon?" Sam rolled her eyes and dropped her smirk, with a look of determination she said "Now what's really eating you up? You're never up here unless you've got something on your mind, and judging from the thunder your mopping has caused, I'd say somethings got you riled up." Danny blinked and looked below him. Sure enough there was a symphony of rolling thunder in the rather large cloud he apparently supper charged. Nothing was hitting the ground yet, no rain or lighting from above, but one stray thought and it could turn into an Olympian epic down there, and judging the green flashes he was seeing, none to natural looking either. Danny grimaced; his master was going to drill him into the ground. He could see it now, using fel energy to deflect curses and shield charms to deflect fel, untold number of objects to transfigure to and from, and he always saved a special surprise just to drill home the lesson, watch your control. Danny slumped forward a little as he internally focused on slowly dissipating the clouds.

"I can already see that all knowing smirk of his right before he hands out the millennia planned punishment." He said with sad defeat, the thunder already dying off as the clouds softened, turning a lighter blue under the moonlight.

"I've already seen it, along with his 'guide to powerful elemental spells' for what he called 'light reading'." Sam air quoted and smirked as Danny's head and shoulders sunk further down. She returned to her serious air and said "it was about that disturbance wasn't it." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Danny rose from his slouch and once again signed, but this time with a more serious attitude.

"Yes it is," He said looking straight at her for a few seconds, then straight out again to the east. "It's not like I haven't sensed a malevolent aura before, but this one is different." Sam kept his eyes on him and said "your right." She looked out toward the same direction as Danny, a small frown on her face. She couldn't quite sense it a strongly as Danny, but he knew her training, and if she felt the same thing, she'd know why it troubled him so. She closed her eyes to concentrate "Its faint now, whatever it is must be in hiding, it was hard enough to get a general location before, now you can forget it." He nodded, when he sensed it, he tried to pinpoint it, but despite its power and disturbing nature, it seemed subdued, probably shielded to prevent such discovery, all he could detect was it was somewhere in the united kingdoms. Not only that but he could feel faint traces all over the place, like it had been split into pieces and spread out everywhere before going dormant, only for everything to resonate after … whatever happened. But that wasn't what disturbed him the most. After several more seconds Sam's eyes shot open in shock "It's… a Halfa?!" She shouted in shock, she didn't care how loud she was, she was in too surprised to care. "Bingo" Danny said with a half-hearted grin in her direction before frowning again in the direction of the UK. "I don't know how, but it's defiantly a halfa, not just any halfa, half human, half spirit." He said grimly.

Halfas in general, were not as rare as some might want to believe. There were many kinds of spirits in the zone and realms beyond, and many of which could be considered a cross in-between. Some were created as halfas by consequence of their formation; Danny remembered hearing of a British wizarding instructor that was a cross between a shade and an apparition, stuck in a boring drool one day, and then switching to an obsessive nut the next. Some were created from the union of two compatible spirits, the stories of the cyclops being born of a union between Medusa and Neptune. But half human, half spirits were a whole other problem. Sure, there were the demi-gods, but those could only come from greater spirit, and were rare and few between, and with new laws passed baring such relationships in the zone, they were definitively extinct. Other than that, the only halfas Danny was aware of where the altered human variety, which held its own sub-categories. For all his preaching, it turned out Vlad was a completely different kind of halfa, more akin to vampires, ironically enough. He didn't seek continues sustenance like a vampire, but the nature of his obsessive tendencies and his more radial exposure to ectoplasm caused his ghost form to develop a more like a lesser spirit, as such, he only developed a basic ectoplasmic core. Sam was different than Vlad, but was also unlike Danny. She was infused with pure energy, both fel and natural from undergrowth, causing her development to be more akin to an elemental spirit. Then there was Danny and …

"Does Danielle know about this?" Sam asked, a worried tone clear in her voice. Danny responded "She does, we talked about it after dinner." He smirked and said "She said I was just being paranoid as always, pointing out that master Clockwork defiantly has a plan for whatever it is." He snorted at the memory; he turned to Sam and said with pleased smirk "She said it with such conviction, wondered where I heard it before." He said in sarcastic tone. Sam blushed, turning her head away she muttered "who knows." Danny's smirk bloomed into a full grown grin.

Danielle had been another testament to Vlad's Fruitloopishness (5 years later and the nickname still fit him so well,) a clone of Danny, right down to his magic. He had used her to try and create the perfect son, but instead, she turned on Vlad and helped him end Vlad's cloning escapade. At first she tried to fly away, but he stopped her midflight to reason with her. After a short debate, she finally decided to at least talk her options out with his parents. Their reactions were just as he expected, His mom coed, Jazz did a spit take before fainting and Danny's father was already blathering on about ghosts to his new child. All in all a good welcome to the newest Fenton, she was even offered the key to Nightingale Manor, but declined, wishing keep Fenton as her last name. She too was also trained, but her development was different than Danny. Unlike him, she developed a pyrokinetic core and held no third energy as she was created before he took the throne. Like him, she to developed an abnormal animagus form, but instead of a wolf-dragon hybrid, hers was a panther-dragon hybrid, resulting in her ears being rounded jetting outward from her skull, instead of his which shot backward. In the 3 years since joining the family, the one Danny had seen her hang out more than anyone else was Sam. The two became inseparable, as if she was born Sam's little sister, their constant company made easier by Sam's ever increasing regularity at the Fenton home. The discovery of her magic brought the tumultuous ire of her parents, who were pointing fingers before they even realized what they were accusing people of, and number one on their guiltily list were the Fenton's. And after the incident with Undergrowth and her becoming a halfa, things only got worse. Nowadays Danny wouldn't be surprised at waking up and finder her at the breakfast table, having spent the night there in the guest room down the hall, and seeing his mother making any kind of vegan breakfast without even being asked.

Danny turned back to the Skyline and again as his face set into a frown, Danielle's comment, while most likely being true also reminded him of something his master said to them a few days ago "Sam, do you remember what master Clockwork said a few days ago?" she turned to him, and again her eyes widened "Yes! Of course, he said he would be in contact with a British wizard in a few days! How could I have forgotten?!" she said with quick slap of her forehead. "Because you were talking to Tucker about that new Dead Teacher movie, while master was making me lift weights with both my body, my fel energy AND my magic." Danny Huffed at the end "I swear, he only waits till I'm neck deep in the worst training before he drops these hints, like it's some sort of test of my concentration." Danny rolled his eyes before looking out into the horizon one more time. A halfa with a sinister aura in the UK, a British wizard consulting with his master, all of this was starting to give Danny a growing sense of dread. It was one thing to face an enemy before you, you can garner information based on the man or woman before, you can learn about your opponent. It's the hidden enemies that made him uneasy. And an opponent he no clue to other then being willfully destructive was even worse. He was going to sign again before he again felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Well mopping about it isn't going to help in the least," Sam said before giving Danny a playful shove on his shoulder "come on Zeus, leave the woes of the mortal world and give us a lift back to Fenton works. Danielle sent me to pull your emo butt back down to earth for our weekly horror movie marathon." Danny chuckled before lifting his left hand and concentrating. A few meters in front of them, an eight foot long, and five foot wide oval of swirling black and green energies appeared before them. Danny and Sam walked/floated calmly up and through the vortex, disappearing into the swells of green and black. A few moments later, the portal collapsed in flash of green and black.

 **Ok, end chapter summery where I beg every not to hate me, so yea, Danny Phantom-Harry Potter crossover. Before anything else, I just want to point out, I'm not really aiming for this to be a super awesome story, and this is more me venting a story for fun. First off, if you couldn't already tell, MAJOR AU for the DP side. I'm not completely rewriting everything, but as you've seen, I'm doing a lot of character redesigns. That being said, a majority of the DP backstory is structured around previous knowledge, which is why I skipped over so much of Danny's accident and Sam becoming a halfa. If you've seen enough of the show, then these shouldn't be too hard to follow (unless I'm a crappier writer then I thought, also a possibility.) Some things like the full backstory of Vlad and Valerie will have to be reworked, but I plan to do that later, as it develops in the story. Really I just planned this first chapter to be a giant exposition dump, getting some core changes out of the way so I could focus on the plot. Speaking of which, I can already hear HP fanboys and purists screaming at me for that little twist in old moldy butt. Don't worry; I don't plan to put Ralph Fiennes in a black jump suit. As you might have deduced very quickly, my AU'ing has left the definition of Halfa very thin, which when I explain what's going on will make much more sense. To be perfectly honest, I really making this story up as I go, I have a general idea of how I want things to progress, but you know how that turns out. And finally, I hate to do this, but I will NOT have a regular release date, sorry I know that's aggravating, but if you've followed any content provider, you know the problems of making something like this regular. PLS post any question you have in the comments and I'll try to answer, please review and enjoy.**


	2. Heeding a Call to Arms with a Summons

**Ok, first off, you may have noticed I have not given an implicit date for this chapter, this is intentional. I put the date in the prologue to give you a reference as to where we were in the DP timeline in relation to the HP timeline. I don't plan on stating the date unless it's relevant to the plot. Now on to my nerdom.**

 **Once again I do not own either Harry potter or Danny phantom**

 _ **Chapter 1 – Heeding a Call to Arms with a Summons, and a Wizards Tour of Wonderland**_

 _Tap, tap, tap_

Various clocks and odd assortments of strange metallic devices chimed in a short rhythmic pattern that echoed off the walls of the ancient office. Their small song would normally calm him, but Albus had too much on his mind to pay them any heed.

 _Tap, tap, tap_

Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, Grand Sorcerer, Supreme Mugwump, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and despite what anyone would tell you, a fantastic chef, sat in his chair in a strange state of mind, one he hadn't felt in in very long time. He wasn't distraught, though if he was, not without good reason. The rival of his old student turned dark lord was reason enough to feel unease. It wasn't sadness; He had felt plenty of that in the intervening time since end of the last term. The death of the promising young Cedric Diggory was truly a tragedy, compounded by his recent correspondence with the current minister of magic. It truly hurt Albus to see the vitriol denial of his old friend, one he once held confidence that should such dark times were to return, he would be strong in the face of such contention. It only was made worse by the fact that Fudge's methods of extreme refusal would be the perfect cover for Voldemort, too perfect to be mere coincidence. And so his friend would continue to inadvertently shield this horror. Albus would of course still offer his friend to come to his senses, but he wouldn't delude himself into thinking his calls would be answered. In fact, Albus was sure that he would loss several of his long standing titles before the start of the next term. ' _Well, at least they can't take my cooking'_ Albus gave a soft, sad chuckle as continued taping the engraved wooden handle of his chair, looking down once again at his desk.

 _Tap, tap, tap_

He looked up briefly to one of the enchanted clocks, reading the time, half past seven pm. He had called his Potions and Transfigurations instructors to his office a few moments ago, feeling he would need both their council in this matter. He again looked down at his desk, looking straight at the formal lettering printed on a standard piece of parchment he received not but thirty minutes ago, at seven on the dot. No, it wasn't distress that plagued him right now, and despite his regret in his friend's fearful action, he was not yet burdened by his sadness. No, for once in many decades of life, Professor Albus Dumbledore was befuddled, confused. Frankly he was well and truly stumped.

 _Tap, tap, tap_

He idly wondered how long had it been since he felt this lost. Despite the rumors, Albus held no true sense of omniscience, just a good sense of his surroundings. Beyond his wand work, beyond any mastery of spells, the one thing he excelled at was his situational awareness. As impressive as a wizard he was, he found an open ear, a quick eye and a sharp mind had proven to be his most valuable assets, tools that over the years he had perfected in using. A strong front, mixed with a mastered control over his nerves made him seem impregnable, and all he need was a free ear in the right circles to weave together his near omnipresent status. Perhaps that, he mused, had unnerved Fudge more than he thought, made him more fearful then he was, ironically pushing Fudge and the needed hand of the ministry away, showing the flaws in his near perfect charade. But even with his faults hiding under the surface, Albus had become convinced that no matter how tangled the puzzle, he could, with a steady hand, pluck out an answer. But he was wrong, and the evidence of his error sat there on the desk, leaving him more puzzled then had been in years.

 _Tap, tap, tap_

It was a gamble to begin with, he admitted. With the order reforming and the ministry baring aid, he had reached out to any who would answer the call. For the most part, the response was just as he had suspected would happen, but one anomaly sprang forth, one which could change the course of this war, for good or for ill he didn't know, and that troubled him the most. Sure, the power and resources of this potential ally where extraordinary, but such gains always came with a price, one he couldn't even fathom to what would be offered. It was a preverbal can of worms, yet despite his trepidation, it was one he knew he couldn't refuse to open. He couldn't simply dismiss the answer to his own call for aid, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't bursting with curiosity over this new development. Perhaps he should consult his good Divinations instructor, Albus had learned one couldn't just simply fish for a premonition, but surely such an odd turn of events had to …

Three sharp knocks broke Albus's musings, he looked up from his desk and spoke loudly and firmly "enter." His office door swung open with Severus Snape walked in with his usual ominous billowing cloak and ever present scowl, though holding less intensity then his usual ill demeanor, good thing to, news like this would require a cool head. Behind him walked in Minerva McGonagall, poised as ever and with neutral thin line on her lips.

"You called Headmaster?" said Severus said, an ever present note of sarcasm in his voice, as if to keep it at the ready for quick snip. "Yes," Albus nodded to them both and stood, he spook as he walked to a large pile of letters stacked by a table placed in the left hand corner of his office. "As you may have known, I had recently sent for aid for the order from outside our boundaries, notably in this case, America." Albus rested a hand on the letters to his side, each opened and read, and each filled with some of the most politely written refusals he had ever seen.

The American magical system was always a strange entity to him. Unlike their own British central government, the American ministry was a close confederation of regional covens, small or large communities that would operate mostly by their own regulations. There were of course agreed upon legislations shared between them. The statute of secrecy being an obvious first, as well as several provisions against discrimination latter voted into law, but beyond that the covens mainly governed themselves. Another curious note was their relation to their muggle community. As Britain became more isolationists, the American magical society was much more intermingled with their muggle countrymen, save a few die heart traditionalists communities or families that separated themselves. And despite a few privately funded institutions, much of their youth was even kept in the muggle school system, their magical training done at home or with other coven members after school hours. An odd system to be sure, but not one without its merit, especially, Albus noted, their close ties to their Muggle fellows. He had written to the allied covens, asking if there were any who would be willing to lend aid, but he knew, or at least thought it was in vain, expecting exactly this sort of reaction. If he was being honest, it was more of a political move than anything else. He had hoped that by writing to the American covens, he could spook Fudge into action, showing him just how serious he was. There was the risk that the minister would get word of his resounding rejection, but the ministry's isolationist, and more often than not, elitist stance had always been very alienating to their American fellows. If he knew the game as well as he thought he did, all the minister's office would hear was that he was talking with covens, leaving them to sweat in the implications. But that was all he knew it would amount to, small political maneuver. The covens, while each holding a varying degree of power, couldn't risk getting caught in such a dangerous endeavor. They may each have the right to act, but outside the states they would be representing the nation as a whole, and any incident would most likely lead to politically disastrous results, all to fall on the head of the coven in question. And the more powerful of the covens, the ones more likely to be able to take such a risk would be able to see right through this ploy, and do what Albus would admit was the smartest course of action, and keep their collective noses clean of it. He turned to his two instructors, as Minerva softly sighed.

"I suppose then we shall find no such relief in the covens then?" Minerva spoke with a small, sad, but assured note as Severus kept an uninterested frown on his face, such news was truly unsurprising. "Yes, as I sorted through these letters today, it seemed to be just that." Albus said slowly walking to the front of his desk. He reached forward a lifted one piece of parchment from the center, turned to face them and said "that was, until I received this right at the strike of seven." They blinked, almost in unison as Severus came forward and took the letter from his hands, quickly scanning the page as his eyes widened in shock. Quickly, he handed the parchment over to Minerva as she brought a hand to her mouth, a soft gasp escaping her lips.

Dear Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore,

In regards to your request for support, I and my fellows would be honored to lend you a hand in these terrible times. If you would be so willing to, I would speak to you of our involvement. At Ten and ten minutes, forty two seconds the day after you receive this letter, a member of the coven will be arriving at your main gate with means to bring you and any trusted council to our current base of operation, Amity Park, Illinois. I hope to see you then professor; we have quite the important task before us,

Sincerely, Master of the Coven of Cronos

It was so strange to Albus, that such few lines to stir such resounding change. The acceptance of his call was one thing, but to be answered be the coven of Cronos? The coven itself was legendary in its own right. If the stories were to be believed, the coven had been around long before the founding of its current residing nation, far beyond even when the first settlers landed on its shores. It was ancient and secretive, said to operate all over the globe, its members silent and swift in their practice. And yet despite its fame, no one, not even someone as well connected as Albus had any real information about the coven itself. A few members were known, and there was word of their movement, but those stories were scarce at best. The most well-known members were intentionally public, and any story of their activity held no information as to their purpose. Even more mysterious was their leadership that, if the stories were true and if this letter was anything to go by they were, was headed by one person at any given time. Sufficient to say no one, not even Albus had ever met a master of the coven, he wasn't even sure such a person existed until now. They were an enigma, a shadowy organization of unknown function, and when they did visibly act, they did so in earth shattering ways. Albus remembered the firestorm that was Amity Park. The town had always been almost unnaturally connected to the spiritual plane, giving passage to all manner of spirits and creatures, long before the muggles had somehow settled into the region. The wizarding world at large already feared how long the secret could last with muggles in such a volatility hotspot. And then the news hit of 2 muggle scientists with the technology to affect the creatures, and the Wizengamot exploded into debate. Something had to be done with Amity, but with the risk of exposure only slightly above the real fear of the spiritual horrors that the town could harbor, any coven had to be suicidal to even contemplate touching such a disaster. Then along came the coven of Cronos, who with no real opposition by their fellow covens, willingly set up shop in the city. As shocking that such an enigmatic group such as them would be so brazen, that was nothing compared to the Fenton affair.

Albus had read of the story the Nightingale family in in his school days, a family of unparalleled huntsmen that disappeared into annals of history. A sad story to be sure, but one long past, leaving him quite surprised as the revived genealogy of the Fenton's came to light. doubly so when news of their children's magic came to be known as the youngest son dawned his clans old name, claiming his spot as heir and joining the coven. Albus knew little of Daniel Nightingale, only that he was around the same age as young Harry, and if the stories were true was under the direct tutelage of the mysterious master of the coven him or herself. A master now giving him summons.

"Surly this was sent in jest!" Severus said in quick anger, his fists clenched and his face held in a slight panic. "A joking response to a ridiculous request! They couldn't honestly think we'd believe such inanity!" Albus gave a long suffering sigh, he couldn't blame Severus for his outburst, this was rather hard to swallow. "I would be inclined to believe you Severus, if not for the letter's printed stationary below." Engraved at the bottom of the parchment was the seal of the golden cog, the symbol of the Coven of Cronos. The covens of America had all held some signifying mark, each enchanted to prevent forgery; the letter couldn't have been faked.

"But Albus!" Minerva nearly shouted out loud, her voice an octave a little higher than normal, "You can't serious be thinking of going! To Amity for Merlin's sake!?" They had all heard the stories; apparitions plagued the streets, elementals appearing weekly. Despite the covens work in somehow maintaining the image of Amity as some kind of tourist trap for muggles, if even half the stories were true, it would be enough to scare any witch or wizard witless.

"I'm afraid, Minerva that I must go." He turned from his instructors and walked towards his ever faithful phoenix, Fawkes. Albus looked his old companion, he had lost the little bouts of eagerness that the bird was prone to after being reborn, settling into a more aged calm, probably would last another 3 to 4 years until his next death. He smoothly petted the birds head as he spoke "while the Coven of Cronos may be … unorthodox, one cannot deny their effectiveness. And besides …" he shifted his hand down past Fawkes back and scratched right at the trouble spot he knew the old bird's beak couldn't reach "we are hardly in a position to be so exclusive in our aid." He lifted his hand from his old companion and turned to them, walking to his desk as he spoke. "The reality of the situation leaves us with little options, Voldemort has gone too underground to flesh out, and based on Severus's reports, he has the backing of more than half of Britain's old families at his side." Severus's fist declutched, but his eyes hardened, the odds were looking quite grim. "We cannot turn away those willing to defended the innocent from such darkness, eccentric or not." Albus griped the back wooden lining of his desk chair and fully turned as to have them both see him clearly. "I do not wish to put either of you or any other in this school in harm's way, but you both are my most trusted council." Albus paused, looking between the two of them.

"You are both free to decline, I will not force your hand, but I will be honest with you both, I have no earthly clue what to expect, and either of your presence would be a great asset." The two of them shared a quick glance and a nod, and then Severus spoke "While I cannot help but still feel … uncertain about these turn of events, I also cannot deny your evaluation of our current situation." His face settled into a familiar begrudged frown, if a little shakier then normal, giving Albus as clear of a note of acceptance as he would get from the man. Minerva spoke next, with a voice as calm and professional as she could muster "I suppose you are correct Albus, in the end, we must be thankful for any helping hand. I will accompany you, to offer whatever use I can." Albus nodded with a pleased smile, their presence would be a great comfort on this excursion. They both returned the nod and turned to walk back to the office door. Albus had turned and lookup up towards the windows of his office observatory, looking at the stars as the started to twinkle into existence with the dying light of the sun, hearing them leave but not of the door closing. Severus had quickly departed to no doubt prepare himself for the trip, with more than just his spare robe, but Minerva stood in the door way, turning her head slight to him and said softly "I just hope you have some idea what we'll being dealing with." She turned back and left, gently closing the door behind her. Albus gave one more sigh and said aloud "A hope, I'm afraid, we share my dear Minerva."

(~)

"Punctuality, it seems, is not a trait of our, would be allies." He sneered in agitation. Severus stood there with both his headmaster and fellow house head at the large gates of Hogwarts. Argus Filtch, ever dutiful and ever cautious, stood with them with his cat Mrs. Norris at his side, readily waiting to carry their few assorted bags and chests of luggage. In front of them was its courtyard and large, impressive bridge, bereft of any crazed American wizards or witches. It was nearly 10 after 10, and still no sign of the beginning of this farce, other than these foreigners apparent adherence to such a ridiculous claim in their letter. As if to personify this mysterious masters apparent clairvoyance, frankly, Severous found it trite. Suddenly he heard a familiar booming voice. It was faint, but considering the man wasn't visible, he had to be fairly far away.

"Ah, don't you go worryen 'bout that old patch, been dryin' up fer while now." He could see them now, the enormous form of the castle's grounds keeper walking past gatehouse of the bridge, and just to the left of the colossus was the outline of what Severus guessed was their American correspondent. As the due walked closer, he got a better gauge of the man, and was fairly surprised. He was fairly tall, still dwarfed by his companion, but if he had to guess, a few inches above Severous himself. The gentleman's hair wasn't merely receding; it was gone, with a clear waxed shine at the side of his head. The man appeared middle aged, with a striking goatee lining most of his chin and a sheepish smile on his lips. His attire was certainly not that of a traditional wizard, in fact he looked very much like any muggle off the London streets. He wore a light tan overcoat, over a white button up shirt and a green, wool sweater vest. Below he had a pair of standard pair of gray dress pants, a pair of black socks and black, well-polished dress shoes, marred slightly by the tell-tale evidence of smeared pumpkin pulp and seed. By all accounts, this man certainly did look the part of such obtuse and strange group of wizards. In fact, if not for the noticeable smears of soot, clearly gained from his international floo transit, Severus would doubt his wizarding status at all. This required … further investigation. As soon as the man was in range, Severus swiftly and cautiously sent his probe into the man's mind. But as soon as he did, he was slammed back with such force as to nearly cause him to physically step back, gaping only slightly at their guest before regaining his indifferent composure before the man even noticed. As Hagrid and the coven wizard entered the courtyard, Severus kept his cold stare, but internally, his mind was racing, and a quick glance at his head master showed the slightest raise in his eye-lids, the only evidence that he noticed just as Severus that oddity before him.

That wall was powerful, more powerful than any mental barrier then Severus had ever encountered, so much so that he doubted even Albus, with his great mastery, could penetrate it. Not only that, but Severus had felt a presence within that barrier, it was ancient, almost otherworldly, but even more startling was that it was clearly foreign to the man's mind. Not only had their guest made action to what Severus could only guess was two, simultaneous peering's into his mind but from what little Severus could deduce from that small moment of contact, the power behind that wall came from another. He couldn't tell where or how, but it was clear whoever or whatever it was, it was … afar. That shouldn't be possible. One can strengthen the guard of their minds, but no one could guard another's, not even Albus, who to Severus's knowledge was the world's greatest practitioner of such mental magic's. Perhaps, he mused, there was more to this master then just theatrics.

The American wizard and half-giant had finally stopped in front of the stairs to the main gate, when he had some sort of realization. "Oh I am so sorry," the man spoke. His voice, despite sounding a little mortified was smooth and a tad monotone and with a clear American accent, "I must look dreadful. Please, allow me to clean up a little." The man reached into his pants pocket and withdrew a black wood, 5 inch wand, which left Severus slightly perplexed. From what little he cared to hear of the American covens, he knew that certain groups their own, unique catalysts for their spell casting, and what even less he heard of the coven of Cronos led him to believe that their traditional tool was a staff. He could be wrong; after all, any information not directly stated by the group was little more than rumor. But if the stories were true, that would mean the man before them was more traditionally trained, or perhaps joined after his formal training. The bald wizard gave a short wave and a mutter incantation as the soot on his clothes and the stains on his shoes slowly dissolved. He placed his wand back in his pocket, walked towards Severus and company and gave a short, nodding bow before placing a hand before Albus and said with a large warm grin "Hello Professor Dumbledore, my name is Lawrence Lancer, but please call me Mr. Lancer, I'm a member of the Coven of Cronos, it's an honor to meet you." Albus in turn gave his usual soft simile and accepted the hand with a quick gentle shake "Hello Mr. Lancer, it is a pleasure to have you at Hogwarts." Their hands parted as the headmaster kept his right hand up and waved to Minerva to his right. "Here we have our Transfigurations instructor and head of Gryffindor house, Professor Minerva McGonagall." She gave the visiting wizard a slight nod and a quick handshake as Albus motioned to him and said "and over here we have we have or Potions instructor and head of Slytherin house, Professor Severus Snape." Severus supposed that cautious curiosity was no reason to be rude, and gave the man a quick, uninterested handshake. Mr. Lancer gave a small nod to both keeping a light grin "it's a pleasure to meet you both." Albus then turned next the group and gave an acknowledging wave of his hand to Filch, saying "and this gentleman here is the castle's caretaker, Mr. Argus Filch." The American moved to give itch his own handshake, but the old caretaker just sneered and muttered something eligible, yet no doubt scalding under his breath. Rude, but admittedly more civil then Severus had expected from him. After a short, awkward silence, Albus decided to press forward, motioned to the large grounds keeper and said "and I see you've already met our keeper of keys and grounds, as well as our instructor in care of Magical creatures, Professor Rubeus Hagrid." The foreigner a measure of his composure and gave a small chuckle, "ah yes, he was nice enough to help me to the gates after I lost my way from the local town, Hogmeade right?" he gave the grounds keeper an appreciative nod before continuing. "I really do apologize for being late; I've never been to such a traditional wizarding town before, I don't get much chance to travel and became a little sidetracked." Odd, Severus thought as he quirked and eye-brow, and spoke up "I was under the impression that the Coven of Cronos maintained many over-seas operations."

"We do," said Mr. Lancer turning more fully to Severus with a more sheepish expression. "But those are carried out by long-standing, highly trained members; I only joined the coven 5 years ago when they moved into my home town of Amity." He said as he placed his right hand on his chest, just over the slight pudge of his stomach. "I myself am just a local English teacher in one of Amity's local muggle schools. I help tutor some of the youth of the coven on some of the basics of their spell work, but I'm more of an involved citizen then an active member. The Master sent me as a sort of soft greeting before you see any of our more … eccentric membership." Well, thought Severus that explains a few inconsistencies, even if it left him unnerved. He couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable at the man's causal mention of his master. Severus knew it was merely a formal address, a traditional title that no one cared to change, but he found it too reminiscent of recent undercover work that while necessary, left an unsavory taste in his mouth. Not that he'd share any of this, but it did bring to mind one slight problem. "Well, if introductions are out of the way, good sir, I must ask as to our traveling arrangements." He asked, his arms folded behind his back, his indifferent stare still present. "Even if you sir are as uninvolved as you claim, you must understand that the matter at hand requires an appropriate level of discretion." They couldn't follow the man by floo, his own transit would most likely be ignored, but any Hogwarts instructor using the system would set off enough red flags to have Fudge informed before his morning tea. Port keys were also unlikely, never mind that the ministry would intercept them before they even reached the Atlantic, the risk of such a large transit by port key meant that at least one of them would defiantly not live through the trip, which left apparition a definitive no. The only means possible would be some form of cloaked transport, one that would have to somehow move passed all the ministries instruments, from the grounds of the castle it would be hidden, but just out of the forest and they'd have no chance.

The English teacher's sheepish expression turned into a wince and said "yes, we understand the situation and rest assured, we have set up a quick and hidden means of travel." He said ending with a nervous chuckle "though I can't honestly call the people in question discrete." He reached again into his pants pocket, but instead of his wand, he pulled out a very strange device. It was clearly muggle in design, a small black hexagon with a large green button on its top face, but its edge glowed with a neon green that confused Severus, and underneath the man's fingers, he caught a small glimpse a strange, neon green flame logo with some kind of large letter printed in the middle, but he couldn't fully make it out. He looked at his head master and fellow professor, but they deemed just as equally confused. He turned back to the teacher just as he pressed the button, the device's glowing edge started to blink and a soft beeping emitted from it, but beyond that nothing happened. "Excuse me sir," Minerva said with a confused address, "but what was this device meant to…" A load crack of thunder interrupted her, as they turned to the clear skies in shock. A few more load booms issued from the heavens before a large, swirling green vortex appeared from the sky! They barely had time to contemplate this development when a large black shape burst through the vortex and glided through the air as its portal vanished behind them in a dazzling flash of green and black. The Gliding creature genially flew down to the courtyard, becoming more clearly defined as it approached. Severus had never seen anything like it, if he had to guess, he would say it looked muggle in design, but that was only because he had never seen anything like it in the realm of magic. It was long, just a few feet shy of being as long as the courtyards width, its own width stretching to half the size of the gates and as tall as the central fountain. It was rectangular in shape with slick, smooth edging. The face jetted outward like that of a muggle aircraft, with a single gray window panel that showed nothing of the devices interior. The body itself was smooth save for one large strip of glowing neon green that lined the whole of the monstrosity, near its base, and showed no evidence of any openings for entry. At the front end of the craft were two angled wing like appendages, trimming in glowing neon green. The tail smoothed into a blunted point in the back, and held a large, spinning black ring lined in an interwoven glowing neon green design and large half cone like devices evenly distributed around the back of the large circle, rotating with it and shooting just past the devices tail with a sold glowing green color blasting from their tips and emanating a soft hum. To top off the oddity was the garish logo of neon green flames with a large italicized F in the middle. It truly was the strangest thing the potions master had ever seen, he stood them mouth agape merely trying to deuce what I was, let alone how it even arrived as it did.

The strange craft slowed as it made its way to the courtyard, turning to present its flank as it stopped a 4 meters above the ground, no doubt to keep its strange appendages from damaging the ground, and hovered in the air for a few seconds. Severus took this moment to compose himself and looked around. Hagrid had moved himself closer to the group to no doubt act as a shield if neccecary as Albus and Minerva seemed to be collecting themselves from their own astonishment. Filch and grabbed his cat and fled hide behind the castle's large gates, peering ever so slightly from behind his shield. Severus turned to the foreign wizard, who while looked completely unsurprised from the oddity's arrival, held a strange look of nervousness. A strange suction of air alerted all as they turned back to the device, a foot from the right crafts horrid logo they could see a door like indent had formed on the body as a strange metal platform began pushing out from the foot of this newly formed door. The Door continued to recede into the body of the craft before splitting in half and swiftly disappearing, as a soft wine died in the wind. " **HELLO ENGLAND!** " A large shout came from the craft as a large, orange shape burst from the door and jumped on the floating metal platform. "The Fenton's have arrived!"

Severus just stared, albeit no long slack jawed, but no less surprised. Before him stood one of the strangest men he had ever met, muggle or wizard. He was a giant of a man, almost reaching their grounds keeper's height, and seemed an equal in girth, but that wasn't what startled Severus, no it was his outfit that that had him baffled. His outfit was bright orange one piece suit, covered in strange pockets and logos and seemingly made of a strange, rubber like substance. The suits outline was lined with a long black strip that held an interwoven, glowing neon green design that ran of the man's arms, torso and legs and converged into a black collar at the suits only apparent opening for the head. He wore a strange, black belt that also held the same glowing, neon green interlay and an odd assortment of pockets and holsters. On his hands and feet were matching, rubber like gloves and boots outlined in neon glowing green and on his left wrist a dark gray band of metal. On his back was a pulled down, sold orange hood with attached glowing green goggles, leaving his face exposed. He had Raven black hair, graying just a tad at the bottom, dull teal eyes, and one of the largest grins Severus had ever seen. "Jack, honey," a stern female voice came from inside the ship, "you shouldn't shout like that." Out walked a woman wearing the same strange outfit, only teal instead of orange and her hood up. "Sorry Madds." The large man now known as Jack responded, grin plastered just as strongly on his face, "I'm just glad to see the family's only hunting grounds!" That stuck Severus out of his shock as he was beginning to process what was going on, and just what the odd loud oaf had just proclaimed to the heavens. The Fenton's themselves, here at Hogwarts of all places! The two muggles whom single-handedly brought the Wizengamot a step before blows and spells between them and here they there at one of the magical locations on earth! Mr. Fenton raised his left wrist and made a few taps on the metal band on his wrist and after a second the metal platform that held the couple slowly descended. As the two were lowered, Mr. Lancer spoke up in a still nervous tone "yes well, as you herd, these are the famous Fenton couple, Jack and Maddie Fenton." The platform rested on the floor as he finished. "They were gracious enough to agree to transport you to Amity and back for your meeting." As soon has he had finished, Jack Fenton rushed from the Platform giving a loud "Great to meet yea!" His wife followed and gave a polite bow of her head. Once a few befuddled and harsh handshakes were shard, the Fenton patriarch sept back and gave an awed whistle "Man! Jazzy-pants was right, this place is huge!" Minerva twerked an eyebrow in confusion "I beg your pardon but who?" The Fenton matriarch meanwhile had shed her hood, and exposed her face. She looked quite young, with light make-up, shoulder length brown hair and lavender eyes. She turned to Minerva while raising her left wrist at tapping her own strange bracelet as face lit up in strange neon green display of icons and images. She continued to tap away on her wrist mounted device, it giving off strange electronic and answered Minerva "oh that's just my husband's nickname for our oldest daughter, Jazmine." Her Husband came over and started to tap away at his own wrist, both seemingly inspecting the castle as she continued "she has a sort of fascination with the workings of foreign magical communities and said of all the European institutions of magic, this was one she'd love to visit the most." The strange muggle turned more fully to Minerva and gave a large smile, "it was professor McGonagall right?" she asked as Minerva gave a confused nod. Mrs. Fenton beamed and said "When we arrive in Amity, I should introduce you to Jazz, she's a huge fan of yours." Severus quirked an amused eyebrow as he saw an unfamiliar note of bashful surprise. "Is that so?" Albus answered with amusement clear in his voice, Mrs. Fenton's beaming face grew as Mr. Lancer spoke up with a much calmer domineer "oh yes, she's read all your publications on advanced application of transfiguration." He then chuckled, "Miss Jazmine Fenton is quite the prodigy; in bother her muggle and magical studies, though if I had to guess, you may be her favorite due to also being a cat animagus." Minerva's eyelids shot up and she responded "a fellow cat animagus? My, that is amazing, tell me, what breed is she?" Mr. Fenton's face seemed to be in danger of bursting under the weight of his smile; he dropped his wrist and brought out a simple leather wallet from his back pants pocket "An orange tabby! Look, I got a couple pictures right here!" He beamed as he opened the folds of his wallet to show a collection of family photos. Minerva had an ever increasing smile as she inspected the photos but Severus on the other hand couldn't care less. He was intrigued when he spotted an oddly dressed young wizard with a staff in hand and a blindfold over his eyes, he assumed that this young man must have been Daniel Nightingale that was really pointless to speculate.

The Fenton's picture presentation was halted as both the couple's wrist mounted devices began to beep as they brought them forward. "Analysis complete, you getting these readings Jack?" Mrs. Fenton said, and turned to her Husband you responded with his apparently perpetual glee "You bet! Looks like at least 300 shade class ghosts on the premise, with evidence of well over a 1000 in total shades and one poltergeist, man! Never seen this many Shades in one place before!" Severus's eyebrows once again shot upwards as a look of astonishment not only crossed his face as well as the other Hogwarts residents. "I'm sorry, but do you mean you can detect the lingering shades of wizards?" Albus inquired, awe clear in his voice, which would have been surprising in of itself if not for such a huge development. He could understand the Fenton's being able to detect apparitions and other stronger spirits, strange as it sounded. All they would need was the ability to utilize ectoplasm in some fashion. And while it seemed infeasible that muggles could control ectoplasm at all, the strange neon green energy pulsing from the engines of their craft had been enough evidence that they had enough to accomplish some level of control. But the ghosts of Hogwarts were different. They were comprised of little to no ectoplasm at all, certainly not enough to detect as finely as the couple had demonstrated. It could only mean one thing; the Fenton's had developed technology that could detect magic, maybe even actually effect or harness it! Merlin, if the ministry heard about this! He couldn't even fathom the backlash, but before he could even respond Mrs. Fenton turned to them and answered with a simple smile "sure, when we learned that magic existed, Jack and I just couldn't wait to research everything we could, though the coven's been a huge help, we couldn't have reached where we are today without them." Albus gave a genital nod, a couple strokes of his beard and said "fascinating" Severus couldn't help but internally cringe, he knew that look. For all of Albus's wisdom, he seemed at times far too eager to jump head long into some of the most dangerous of situations. Severus had to admit, even he was amazed at what these muggles had accomplished, but he couldn't even imagine the consequences of what would happen if the ministry at large had learned of the Fenton's breakthroughs, the wizengamot nearly tore itself apart when they herd of two muggles who could simply _detect_ spirits.

Mr. Fenton gave a short few taps at his wrist and said "We know well enough to leave the shades alone, but if you're looking to get rid of that poltergeist, we'd be happy to nab'em! We've been wanting to run a few tests on the more malicious types of shades!" Even Severus, with all his self-control, couldn't help but actually _smirk_. To have that blasted trickster pulled to pieces on some lab table far, far away? The image alone pleased him enough to almost be persuaded to give the first year Gryffindor's an easier first day, almost. Filch himself seemed nearly ready to kiss Mr. Fenton in joy, but before the disgusting and mentally scaring scene could take place, Albus spoke up "Thank you for the offer Mr. Fenton, but I must decline your offer. Hogwarts has traditionally had a poltergeist since its founding, and while peeves might be the occasional nuisance, even he has his place in Hogwarts." Severus rolled his eyes at the wasted opportunity as Mr. Fenton merely shrugged and said "suite yourself," as Filch seemed as if he was about to either drop to his knees and beg, or cry, or both. Albus spoke again, politely addressing the Americans "perhaps we should continue this conversation another time? We really shouldn't keep your Coven master waiting." The trio of instructors swiftly lifted their wands and shrunk their assorted luggage to fit into their robe pockets. Severus looked up dubiously at the strange craft; they weren't really going to _fly_ in that monstrosity were they? But he gave a silent, practiced sigh, he admitted that the only way this venture would work would be to use an unknown vehicle, and he seriously doubted any in the ministry could know about this masterpiece of insanity.

Albus gave one more word of farewell to Hagrid and Filch (the latter of whom was mumbling in a depressed sulk,) as the three of them cautiously joined the Fenton's and the American wizard on the waiting platform. Mrs. Fenton gave a few short taps on her wrist as their platform slowly rose in the air, stopping directly in front of the strange metal craft's still open door. Mr. Fenton then suddenly slapped his forehead and said "oh! Silly me, I almost forgot to place this baby in stealth mode!" confused, Severus almost asked what he meant when he brought his wrist forward again and gave a quick series of taps, then, suddenly the craft before them vanished, leaving only the metal platform and the open doorway which looked astoundingly out of place floating in the sky. With a small amount of unseen trepidation, Severus followed the Fenton's through the doorway and viewed the interior. The inside of the craft had simple chrome metal floor, walls and ceilings. The walls were lined with an assortment of strange consoles and stations that he could only guess at their function, with simple florescent lighting fixed into the ceiling. The room itself was clearly smaller than the full craft; making up what he could only gather was nearly a 1/5 of the front section of the body. A visibly closed doorway was centered right into the back wall, but the door itself held no knob, just a strange small console attached to its right. The center of the room had a variety of white cushioned benches and seats, each having individual armrests. The very most front had only two seats, situated in front of a large metal counter jetting outward from the nose of the ship, looking suspiciously similar in composition to the couple's wrist devices. Mr. Fenton gestured to the seats and said "go ahead and sit wherever you want, and remember to buckle up!" he then sat in the front left seat as his wife took the right and placed their hands on the metal counter and sure enough a large, neon green holographic display appeared on the metals surface, with the Fenton's beginning to make a series of taps. Severus decided to take a lone, single chair behind the couple as Minerva and Albus shared a bench to the immediate right of his own seat and Mr. Lancer alone to the bench on his left, just as the doors leading to the outside closed. The couple both stopped their tapping and each pressed a button that immediately produced a belted harness to keep them secured to their seats. Severus quirked and eyebrow and looked to his armrest, and sure enough there was a small interface of holographic buttons, on he could easily distinguish as some kind of harness. He hesitated for a second before realizing he wanted to be as safe as possible on this floating boat of madness, and pressed the button as did his compatriots as their securing harnesses snapped into place.

Mrs. Fenton turned and gave a beaming smile "Ok, is everyone safely snugged in? Cuz everyone's first ride tends to be a bit unnerving." "But there's nothing to worry about!" Mr. Fenton bellowed as he proudly pounded his fist into his chest, "I built the specter speeder mark 7 to be as safe as possible!" 7?! "And what pray tell!" Severus asked in a mixture of mostly frustration and slight panic, "Happened to the other 6?!" Mr. Fenton gave a quick awkward couple of coughs that sounded suspiciously like "not my fault, sun was in my eyes," The just _filled him with confidence!_ He sat back with a scowl as Mrs. Fenton rebutted "There really isn't anything to worry about, we may have had trouble before, but ever since Tucker integrated the holographic interface, it's almost literally driven itse…"

"Who?" Minerva asked, "Tucker Foley" Mr. Lancer spoke up from his seat as they turned to him "He's a student at the local muggle school, but more notably a gifted young apprentice in the coven. He's a master of charms, and has worked with the Fenton's in integrating magic into machinery." Mrs. Fenton gave Mr. Lancer a grateful smile as she spoke "yes he's been a friend of our son since before their magic even came to light, and after he's been instrumental in our work. My husband and I work on theory and most of the hardware of the job, but he is a master of software, developing tools and systems with Fenton tech we couldn't even begin to imagine. You've noticed our wrist coms right?" she said, lifting her wrist to display the slick metal band around it. "He was the one who actually designed it, as well as our ships interface, speaking of which." She turned back to her own portion of the controls began entering a few taps along with her husband. The craft rose with barely a shake as the scenery changed in the front window of the craft from the courtyard to the bright clear sky above. The couple gave a few more short taps, "Inter-dimensional jump gate ready!" Mr. Fenton bellowed as the first resinous look crossed his face. The console lit up as a holographic image of the ship showed an image of the ship deploying some strange kind of cannon from its undercarriage. Then all of a sudden, a blinding green light shot from the bottom of craft, going several meters ahead before slamming to a halt by some invisible force. The Glowing light contract slightly in-place as it expanded into a large green vortex glowed brightly before them. "Ok! Here we go!" Mr. Fenton broke one more smile before making a few more taps as the craft hovered into the vortex.

(~)

Albus blinked as the blinding green of the vortex dissipated, a few spots still in his eyes before looked out of the curious craft's window and nearly gasped as he saw a birds eye view of the land below. Gone was the pointed horizon of the forbidden forest of the Hogwarts grounds, in their place were lush, green rolling plains as far as the eye could see, obscured by a gray fog as the clear sunny sky changed to the dimming of twilight. Jack Fenton kept his enormous smile as he explained "welcome to the good old US of A!" Albus sat their shocked as both his instructors looked with gapping mouths. They had seen the portal before, but to see it in use so personally was astounding. Poor Minerva looked ready to faint as she asked in whispered awe "how is this possible?" "With our ghost portal jump gate system of course!" Mr. Fenton boasted, but … "ghost portal?" Albus asked confused, surly they don't mean … "Yep, it's our crowning achievement, a portal to the ghost zone! A couple of years ago, all we could do was keep a permanent gateway in the lab to one random location in the zone. Now we can open a portal where ever we want, whenever we want! All we have to do is open two, closely connected portals in two separate locations, traveling just a millisecond in the ghost zone before bam! Instantaneous travel!" Mr. Fenton bellowed loudly over their accomplishments, which were rightfully ingenuous but this? This was beyond even his wits. A portal to the Nevernear, or ghost zone, was something he thought was well beyond magic. Sure, get the right ingredients, memorize the right incantations, and set up the right ritual and you could do a proper summoning. But even summoning some of the simplest of apparition's required near impossible regents and unbelievably large amounts of power from the castor or castor's, to access the realm itself was an almost impossible task. But here, these simple muggles, with nothing but intuition and determination, had accomplished something that even magic seemingly forbade. Once again, Albus was astonished by the couple, who were looking more and more like the ideal recruits.

He had seen the nervousness in his potions instructor when he inquired of their capacities, but he could see the great potential in the Fenton's technology and judged any risk to well worth the reward. They certainly had no problem sharing their discoveries, evidenced by Mr. Fenton still enthusiastically talking about the nuances of their work, speaking in muggle mechanical jargon he couldn't begin to understand with his wife jumping in to give a quick correction here and there. Despite his over-enthusiastic personality, Albus couldn't help but admire both Jack Fenton, it was clear that their profession was more than means of sustenance, but a true passion. If he was being honest, Mr. Fenton greatly reminded him of Arthur Weasley, whose family he had just recently relocated to the orders new, make shift headquarters at number 12 grimmauld place. It was unfortunate, but necessary, the Weasley family made it no secret were their loyalties lye, it would be too dangerous for them on their own. Perhaps, if things go well, he would be able to at least introduce Arthur to the Fenton's, as a small means to repay them for their loyalty, he was sure that both parties would get along swimmingly.

The craft continued to speed past the countryside as Mrs. Fenton broke her husband's lecture and said ""we're just about at Amity right now; normally we'd just open the portal above the destination, but we did want to spoke the populace with the portal, the sight of an open portal in Amity is enough to scare people off the streets." Albus broke from his thoughts and steeled himself in quiet determination; it was time to view possibly the most haunted land in the world. The rolling hills of the plains soon gave out to long stretches of roads as structures were seen on the distance. As they approached, Albus was given a closer look at this volatile hotspot and was inquiringly confused. Simple brick buildings, a few cozy apartments interspaced with small businesses, the inner workings of the city looked more industrial, but certainly nothing beyond any muggle city he had seen before. All in all, city had the look and feel of a simple small town, certainly nothing like what its fame should suggest. The couple gave a few taps as the craft pulled into an empty street, hovering just in front of 2 abandoned red brick buildings just a few blocks from the center of town. The door of the craft opened as Albus and his fellow passengers were instructed to press the harness icon on their armrests for release, and he, Minerva, Severus and Mr. Lancer moved to the door. "Sorry we can't come with, but we gotta dock the speeder back home." Jack Fenton said with his ever infectious grin as he and his wife stayed in their seats, then Maddie said "we've made a quick scan of the streets and you should be clear to enter the tower, no locals, and not even any ghosts." Her brows quirked together as she said "come to think of it, they've been quite for the past couple of days, shortly after the kids got off for summer school," She turned to the group of wizards at the doorway of the ship and asked "you wouldn't by chance no anything about that, would you?" Albus actually had a very good of what caused that, but the implications worried him tremendously. It wasn't unthinkable that a few of the spirits would remain cautious, Voldemort was known for binding a wayward spirit to syphon its power, but that such a volatile and remote hotspot such as Amity would go silent meant the beings of the spiritual plane sensed greater trouble than he expected, and that was not a good sign. It seems this partnership's necessity was even further proved, a quick look at Severus as his eyes widened before setting into a hardened frown showed his potions master thought the same thing, they couldn't be picky in their aid. Albus addressed the Fenton's and said "I do have a few ideas as to what the cause could be, but I'm afraid my dear that I'm not at liberty to share them yet, I apologies." Best now not to reveal too much until speaking with this master of theirs, though if proceedings went as he thought they would, he would tell them the full story before too long. Mr. and Mrs. Fenton shared a quick nod as the group stepped onto the platform, the door shutting behind them as the platform slowly descended to the street before rising again and disappearing with the rest of the craft, a soft hum slowly dying in the wind as the ship invisibly flew away. "Right then, please follow me." Mr. Lancer gestured to the group as they followed into the dark alleyway between the two buildings. As they walked into the darkness of the ally, Albus began to sense it, a powerful concealment charm laid before them. Soon they reached the dead end of a red brick wall, which to any muggle would be the end of the story, but the groups of Hogwarts instructors were familiar with such magic's. Swiftly, Mr. Lancer pulled out his wand and tapped the wall three times and said " _tempus regias"_ under his breath. Just a second after stating the password, the bricks of the wall began to shift and move, becoming an arched corridor as touches that lined the hallway came alight. At its end was a sold purple door, trimmed in gilded gold with a solid gold, gilded knob and the golden cog of the coven of Cronos in the middle. Quickly they quickly walked down the hallway and reached the door as Mr. Lancer grabbed the knob and gave a beaming smile and said "well I suppose this calls for a dramatic introduction." He cleared his throat and said "dear instructors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I give you the Coven of Cronos's base of operations, Time Watcher's Tower!" He turned the knob and opened the door.

Beyond the door was an enormous circular room, easily the size of 3 great halls. The building itself was comprised of ancient, gray stones comprised almost all of the walls and floors, if not for the gilded stain glass windows on the walls that depicted several different clocks and cogs as well as giant, ancient selections of rugs and hardwood furniture interspaced within the large floor. In the center was a gigantic wooden beam slowly rotating in the center of a large hole in the floor, a small stone wall lined the pits edge. The pillar's massive frame reached upward to an incredible height before ending in a massive central cog in a sea of cogs and clockwork that made the rooms ceiling. Albus stepped in the room, silently marveling at the sight of it all, from the sheer size of the room, the beautiful craftsmanship of the surrounding furniture and the bustle of the local coven. There were all manner of wizards and witches in the room, some amongst a number of bookshelves and desks, furiously scribbling on muggle paper while others with a quill and ink on parchment. Others mingled on recreation tables and benches while others same and went from similar doorways lining the perimeter of the vast room. Mr. Lancer closed the door behind them as said "Now, I'm to escort you to Miss Jazmine Fenton, she will then personally bring you to the master's office." He walked in front of them and said "She should be somewhere on the grand floor, usually tutoring one of the students in either the magical or muggle studies, this way." He gave a quick wave as the group of them followed closely behind. As they walked, Albus looked among the crowd and saw in interesting distinction between two groups. The first were those who were busy with research or seemed to be tutoring younger family members, these people were dressed in traditional muggle garb and waved a traditional wand. The other group was different, these individuals were the ones coming to and from the many doorways, or were merely sitting in more recreational sections. These individuals wore long, different colored cloaks and all bore a visible image of the golden cog somewhere on their person, as well as each holding a variety of staves. It seems the good English teacher was speaking the truth about the more combat oriented members using the rumored staves, not that Albus thought he was lying but it never hurts to see the evidence for yourself. They continued walking through the crowd, some heads turned to gawk at the famous headmaster, but most went about their business. Albus continued to view the crowd as they walked and nearly gasped when he viewed a third group amongst the crowd, ghosts. Everything from the simple shade to glowing green apparitions to a few strange elemental creatures walked about, mingling within the crowd. The variety in power and type astounded him, even more so that they seemed perfectly docile, some even clearly baring the mark of the golden cog. Albus must have stopped at some point as Mr. Lancer turned to face the group, "surprised to see our other worldly companions I see." In hindsight, Albus had to admit that it should have been obvious, most spirits were known to be reclusive, never really interacting with human realm unless summoned or forced by their more malicious peers. But still, the fact that this coven had so many spirits willingly in their aid spoke volumes of their master, and while it was comforting to know that such a man was willing to lend a hand, Albus couldn't help but feel unnerved.

Who was this man? What kind of power did he wield to have the spirits readily in his employ, who could reign in one of the most spiritually volatile places in the world? And then there were mental shields to consider. He had to admit, he succumbed to his curiosity of their foreign guide when he arrived at Hogwarts and tried to learn just a bit more, and was just as equally surprised at the foreign guide as Severus. That would be just it, a strange oddity, possibly explained by a hidden item on the man until he sensed the Fenton's. Severus most likely didn't pick it up as he didn't attempt peer into the couples head but Albus didn't need to peer into their minds, his mastery allowed him to sense their defenses and he was silently shocked to feel the same shields as the man in front of him. He would think it a part of their equipment, some sort of defense they had constructed for protection if he couldn't feel the presence in their shields, the same ancient, powerful presence that left Albus feel bared by a higher power. It was one thing to boost wizard's mental defenses, perhaps with the right application and rituals it might be feasible, but to guard the minds of muggles was beyond anything he thought could ever be achieved, it meant the shield was entirely a foreign power, something beyond the conscious mind in question, something that was entirely impossible. And then finally was this room, quite possibly the most shocking aspect he found was not the spirits, nor the diversity of the wizards and witches in the room, it was that every single one had a mental guard of their own. Some, he felt, had constructed their own defenses, he could feel them coming from what seemed older or more proficient members of the coven, but for all the rest, the guard was absolute, all holding that same ancient presence. He made a quick look at his potions professor and while Severus was doing a good enough job at hiding it, it was evident to him that he was feeling just as unsettled. This was beyond just the power of a greater wizard; such power was frankly god-like. But amongst the crowd he could pick up an oddity in the mental wards.

It wasn't its power then confused him, but its feel. Unlike the predominant guard of the room, which felt ancient and authoritative, this was clearly young and free spirited. It was effective that the individual's thoughts couldn't be perceived, but either the person in question wasn't trained well enough to block out their emotions, or were unconcerned to hiding them. Curious, Albus moved a bit to the right of the group, scanning the crowed as he approached a large open section of rug with a few sparse chairs and tables for quick recreation. The rest of the group followed as Mr. Lancer came up to his left and said "Professor Dumbledore! Where are you- oh that's Jazz Fenton over there." He pointed to a small table where a young woman sat, a book in hand. She looked just as she did in the Fenton's pictures, with long, vibrant orange hair tucked behind her head with a simple teal headband. She wore a teal, silk top with long sleeves that stretched past her waist and down her right flank. Around her waist was a black sash and below that she wore a long black skirt the reached a little past the middle of her lower leg. On her feet were short black socks and black moccasins. To see the eldest Fenton child in person was an interesting development, equally so when he felt an equal guard over her mind as he did the majority of the crowd, but Albus's full attention was on her companion, the source of the strange mind he had sensed. She was young, appearing to be about 12 in age, no older then a second year. She had slightly pale skin and long, black hair tided in a ponytail with bandage cloth, it reminded Albus of Harry's unruly hair except this seemed to be treated with a conditioner to keep it straighter and more feminine in nature. She wore a hooded, grey-blue sweater and long red jeans with white and red sneakers on her feet. Around her neck was a silver pendent, shaped in as a small broadsword and a glowing red gem on the hilt. Albus was surprised to feel a fait trail of magic emanating from the pendent, similar to that of a wand, but truly, that was not the most shocking aspect of the girl; no it was the fact that she quite frankly didn't look completely human.

She had 6 white, stone like horns poking up from her hairline the ran in 2 pairs of 3 in a straight line on opposite sides of her head, each curving slightly to the back of her head and each tipped and a blazing red, her ears protruded from her head and were rounded, similar of a lion or other such larger feline, and were covered in short black fur with a small plumage of white and silver within the ear itself. On each of her fingers were small, white claws tipped with the same red as her horns. She had a long, black furred tail coming from the base of her spine; it was about 6 inches in diameter and in the same short black fur that reminded Albus of a jungle cat. The tail itself stretched to an impressive length, approximately one and a half times her height and ended in a small tuff of red fur at the tails tip. It seemed to ungulate slowly, similar to that of a reptile. The girl was currently using her tail as a make shift chair, propping herself up by her tail and folding her legs in mid-air, the tails movement only slightly moving the young girl as she stared intently at a transfigurations textbook in her lap,( the Scylla of her eyes were black and pupil's slitted and her iris's a striking ocean blue,) talking to the young miss Fenton "Ugh, I still don't get why I have to know so much about rat anatomy to turn a rat into a goblet, isn't magic supposed to be instinctual?" she said, in such a reminiscent frustration of one of his students, Albus nearly chuckled out loud. Second year transfiguration was always harder for those without a knack for the craft, and despite the strangeness of the girl before him, he couldn't help but feel to appease the teacher in him, nearly speaking up until Miss Jazmine beat him to the Punch. "Magic can manifest instinctually Danielle, but that doesn't mean it does the work for us." She chided the younger girl, "Magic by nature is just a power source, it's your mind and will that shape your spells, if you don't have the right understanding in how to shape it, the spell will merely apply that power to any stray effect it can, such as when during you charms practical you conjured a robin instead of water." She said, with a raised eyebrow and a stern look chastisement as her young student rubbed the back of her head and chuckled sheepishly. Albus couldn't help but smile, the girl shared more than a just a similar animagus form with Minerva, he looked back and nearly chuckled himself at the look of proud approval Minerva wore at her teaching. Speaking of animagus, Albus turned back and examined the girl that sat on her tail several meters away. She had lifted the book from her lap as she bit the bottom her lip, sharped teeth and fangs now visible as she moved her tail so she sat upside down, apparently trying to look at the material in a different perspective. It was faint, but he could feel a similar magic of that of an animagus around the girl, though it was strange.

With a typical animagus, the magic in question was present but subdued, only taking into effect when desired by the castor in question, and when in effect, be predominate to the point that to any sufficiently trained wizard, the magical nature of the form would be evident. The girls form was however different, impartial transformations while not infeasible were highly difficult to even achieve and even more so maintain. And yet, judging by what he could sense, she felt no strain, as if the form she was in was actually more natural than a full human. Albus was once a gain stunned, if not a little worried, the animagus magic's always carried a risk and he feared she was the victim of a misjudged transformation. He was tempted to peer inside her mind and see, her guard, while strong, seemed relaxed, with enough prying he might … no, Albus stopped himself. It would be wrong to try so on so young a mind, but just as he pulled back he sensed Severus extend his probe to the girls mind, apparently he had no such concern of her age. He was about to reprimand his instructor for his rude behavior when …

" _ **HEY!"**_

The girls elongated ears snapped in attention as she jerk up and started right at the group before narrowing her eyes and he could feel Severus pushed back with such force that he had to take several steps back, a loud mental shout resounded. It nearly pushed Albus back as he started wide eyed at the girl. That was not just a trained defense; it was more akin to a natural defense mechanism, as if her being was naturally inclined to protect such intrusions. The girl used her tail as a spring and actually hovered a few feet in from of the group, tail unconsciously swishing behind her as she glared daggers at the potions master as Minerva started wide eyed at the whole scene. "It's rude to look into a person's mind without their permission bub! What gives you the right to just try and waltz into a lady's head?!" Severus, despite his surprise at the child's causal use at flight recomposed himself and sneered, though with a lesser intensity than usual. Child though she may be, the potions master couldn't really argue her point, he was caught red-handed. "You'll have to forgive him Dani," The calm voice of Jazmine Fenton came as she walked next to the young floating girl, now standing he saw the girl was just a few inches shorter then Severus "it can't be easy for a trained legilimancer in a room full of people whom he can't see within," she narrowed her eyes at Severus and frowned, leveling him a look of pure disapproval and said "even if was still rather rude." Albus couldn't help but give a soft chuckle, it really was too much like seeing a young Minerva all those years ago, made even better by Severus's mumbled and quick apology as the real Minerva held a respectful smile. Mr. Lancer spoke up as he walked to the two young girls and said "yes well, everyone this is Jazmine Fenton, one of our best students and tutors, and her younger sister, Danielle Fenton." Albus raised an eyebrow in curiosity, a third Fenton child? He hadn't heard news of a younger daughter, certainly not one with such bizarre magic. But then again he hadn't heard much of the other children beyond their names before this little excursion, and given the odd nature of the girls magic, he could understand the family being withholding such knowledge from the wizarding press, not that any would brave the town to bother the family anyway.

The eldest Fenton daughter stepped in front of Albus and company and said "please, call me Jazz, you must be Professor Dumbledore, I've read you dissertation on dynamic transmutation, it's an honor to meet you sir." She gave a large, warm smile and extended a hand to him, which he gladly accepted, with an equally warm smile. It really didn't surprise him that she had read his work, given what he had already heard of her studious nature, but to see one so dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge brought a warm feeling of pride swell in his chest. He might just recruit her to the staff in a couple of years, she clearly had the mind for the task and her perspective on such a spiritual ground would be a great benefit to the school, he'd have to look into once this war was done. She extended a hand to Severus and said "and you must be Professor Snape, I've also read about your work in refined ingredient extraction, it was truly fascinating." Severus only clue of surprise was a singularly raised brow as he took her hand and gave a quick, polite shake saying "It's always a pleasure to meet an individual who knows the value of sensible concoction, something my students apparently need to relearn every year." She gave a small giggle, shared by her younger sister behind her. Severus gave her an incredulous look as she quickly composed herself and said "oh I'm sorry, but that comment was something I might hear from my brother Danny." Mr. Lancer then joined his own soft chuckle "yes, that's true, Mr. Nightingale seems to have made sarcasm into his native language, as his English teacher I can't help but feel both annoyed and proud." So, the Fenton son had a common trait with the potions master, well at least Albus had a general idea of what to expect. Of what little he did know of the Fenton family ha was sure Mr. Nightingale would be near during the proceedings with the Coven master. Miss Fenton gave one smaller chuckle before turning the Minerva and said "And you are …" She stopped dead and brought both her hands to her moth as her eyes widened "Oh my gosh! You're Minerva McGonagall!" Minerva gave a genital smile of amusement as Albus heard Miss Danielle groaned and said "oh no." Immediately Miss Fenton clasped both hands around Minerva's hands, her mouth in a grin to rival her fathers and her teal eyes looking near to sparkling " Oh my gosh and such a huge fan of your work Professor McGonagall, I've read all your …!" She was cut off by her younger sister as she zoomed through the air and planted both her hands on Miss Jasmine's mouth and said "Jazz, sis, remember to breath…" She removed he hands from Minerva who looked to be suppressing a few chuckles for the young girl's sake as Miss Fenton collected her wits, her face flush in blush and her mouth in an embarrassed small smile. She spoke up "y-y-yes, of course, forgive me, you had business with the master right?" Her sister and said "It looks like we're finished with today's study session Dani, I want you to read the rest of chapter 2 as well as chapter 3 before our next session," The younger girl slumped in the air and gave a tired groan as Miss Fenton continued "why don't you go find Sam, she should be done with her DADA practical practice by now." The youngest Fenton perked right up and said "K, bye Jazz," she sped off, but stopping as Jazz gave a stern "ahem" and turned in midair with a sheepish smile "oh and bye Mr. Lancer and company!" She zoomed over the crowd before phasing right through one of the doors lining the walls, leaving her sister to sigh and Albus completely amazed and confused. What exactly was the youngest Fenton? An altered animagus could explain her form, while it was near impossible by regular means, the strange spiritual connection this land had could do untold things to her developing magic. But flight, the ability to pass through solid objects? Possible for one of the greatest users of magic, but certainly not for one so young and judging from what he sensed; it was done more by instinct than by a formed spell. There was so much of this coven that surprised him, it seemed this venture would bare greater fruit then he imagined.

Mr. Lancer stepped up with an amused shake of his head and said "always the free spirit that one," he chuckled at some apartment joke and continued "well I best be off myself, I've got papers to grade and lessons to plan, I'll leave you in Miss Fenton's capable hands." He gave s short nod and a couple quick handshakes and left, disappearing in the crowd behind them. Miss Fenton gave the man a small farewell wave before saying "all right, if you follow me, I'll take you to the master's office." She turned and led them to an opposite corner of the massive room, cutting through the crowd as they went about their business. Albus look around him as furniture changed from bookshelves and tables of the area become different assortments of furniture, from tables to benches, some even surrounding beautifully crafted water fountains and further still an assortment of stands and displays from wizard and spirit alike, all selling any assortment of wares. But as strange as his surroundings were, Albus couldn't help but focus on the girl, her strange magic and abilities leaving him stumped as to their nature. "You know," Miss Fenton said, barely turning her head back to Albus as they walked, "I don't mind a couple of questions sir, I'm sure Danielle wouldn't mind me clarifying a few things." She said on a small smirk, and Albus couldn't help but chuckle. Miss Jazmine might not have had legilimency, but she did have enough experience to pick up facial ques, and enough situational awareness to find the problem, he really would have to see about recruiting her, she would make a wonderful teacher. He gave a small nod of appreciation as she returned the gesture and said "yes well, as you might have deduced, she's an animagus, same as me and my brother." So the young Fenton son was also an animagus, it didn't really surprise him, based on what he read about the Nightingale family. Although rare, some families were known to have unique magical talents that ran in the family, and the Nightingale had the rare talent of animagus magic. When the family was still in its prime, its members counted for most of Europe's animagus and their eventual decline was one of the major reasons for the magic's own modern obscurity. Miss Jazmine continued "She originally had a panther form, as my brother had the old Nightingale trademark form of a white wolf." Severus quirked an eyebrow and spoke with only a slightly interested tone "Originally?" Minerva's face contorted into confusion and worry as she looked at the young woman. The group had stopped at one of the door lining the walls, but not yet stepping in, as Jazmine gave a small sad sigh and said "yes, originally they both had the usual animal forms, but …" she tapered off as she turned her head to the door and grabbed one hand in the other, a sad frown only half visible on her face "there was an accident in our parents lab a few years ago, I wasn't home at the time, so I was unaffected, I won't go into the details as their a little too personal, but it essentially left their magic … altered." She visibly recollected herself and continued through the door, on the other side was a long stretch of corridor, similar to the entrance they had walked through earlier. They continued through the corridor as Miss Jazmine continued "They were given a few spiritual abilities and spiritual magic's, like the flight and intangibility that you saw Dani use." Albus hesitated in his step for just a second before continuing; visibly looking intrigued as internally his mind was racing. The spiritual arts were an obscure and eldritch branch of magic, capable of feats nigh impossible, but were long forgotten due to their impracticality. In order to use them, one needed a steady supply of ectoplasm, which before the Fenton's was near impossible to obtain. But even with such a supply, one still had to learn how to effectively channel the energies through a series of catalysts and sufficient training otherwise you couldn't lift a pebble much less yourself. And yet, the youngest Fenton showed no such preparations, no runes or cumbersome artifacts, using such magic's as easily as breathing. It could only mean one thing; both she and the boy must have gained some form of symbiosis with the ectoplasm, being infused with it. The implications where staggering, if the boy had anywhere near the level of control as the girl…

He spoke up "Astounding, it must be difficult for them to control such abilities," Miss Jazmine relaxed, apparently glad to shift the subject away from the accident and said "at first it was, Danny could barely walk anywhere without accidentally phasing halfway through the floor, but then the master approached us and helped personally train both Danny and Danielle, as well as our friend Sam who's magic was similarly altered in a run in with a malevolent elemental." Another one?! Albus wondered was beginning to wonder how many in this coven could use the spiritual arts when he considered the young woman's words. It seems their new ally was a master of the spiritual arts, which would explain his involvement and association with the spirits of this town, but still left Albus no hint as to who this mysterious master was, perhaps a little more digging will shed a little more light. The group had reached the end of the hallway and exited thought a similar door into a large, circular ring of a room. It was composed of the same stone as the interior room and had a diameter of a third the interior room, which still left a fairly large gap between the walls. Looking up, Albus could see symmetrical doors lining up the walls of the tower, each row having an iron and stone catwalk as the rows seemed to stretch upwards at an impossible great height, ending stone ceiling that had large, dark iron chandeliers with clearly enchanted candles for lighting. In front of them was a large, vertical bronze gear contraption jetting halfway from the wall and floor. Wrapped around the gear was a bronze catwalk that sat level with a surrounding metal docking station that had a waist high metal fence lining around the cat walk except for a metal gate siting on opposite sides of the large gear, a metal post sat next to both gate with a wooden box filled with a few glowing orange buttons on its face. Behind the gear on the wall was a small metal track where half the gear rested and ran all the way up, through large gaps in the lining rows of catwalks, each with their own call stations. As the group approached the lift, Albus considered his words, what did he want to ask? He spoke up "Miss Fenton, if you don't mind me asking a little more about your sibling's animagus forms, how exactly where they altered?" Albus figured he'd ask the about the spiritual arts from the source itself, right now those altered forms intrigued him. Miss Jazmine turned her head a bit and said "oh yes, well, unlike a normal animagus who really can only chose between a full human form and a full animal, those two can alter, mix and match in any way they seem fit, though …" She had stopped for a second before continuing, reaching the gate of the lift and pushing it aside as she finished "you saw Danielle before right? Despite being able to turn and stay human for an indefinite amount of time, they both feel stiffed in a full human form, feeling much more naturally comfortable in a sort of half state, like you saw earlier." Her head dipped slightly as she sighed "well, I can't say they both can go fully human, Danielle can change everything back, but Danny … he lost the ability to change his eyes back, their permanently stuck in an altered state." He saw Minerva put a hand over her mouth aghast as Albus's own mouth set into a sad frown.

It wasn't the first time he heard of an animagus being stuck with some strange affliction, it was a dangerous skill to learn, but o happen to one so young was disheartening. Miss Jazmine turned and said with a small smile "it's not so bad, his training with the master has made so the blindfold doesn't actually inhibit him, and he seems to have adjusted well enough it's just ... Danny has a tendency to take on too much." She turned from them and sighed "it keeps him focused on his work, which is productive, and he certainly hasn't lost any of his humor." She said with a soft snort, eyes distant as she seemed lost in her worry, "Over all, he's happy and healthy, but that's because of the support around him, if he's left to his own devices, I can't help but worry for him." She finally let out one more sigh, looked down and opened the gate to the lift, saying "He has a bad habit of putting the weight of the world on his shoulders." She stepped in and they followed, with Miss Jazmine closing the gate behind them. She walked up to the side large face of the gear that had a small wooden plaque cover in orange glowing buttons, each having a number printed in black cursive on its face except for one large button that sat alone and above all the others, it had in the same font a CW icon, which Jazmin pressed. Albus could hear the mechanisms of the lift creak to life as the platform steadily rose, passing row after row in its accent. Finally, they reached the top row as the lift stopped to let them off. This row differed from the others, there were no doors lining the outer ring, instead, there was a long bridged catwalk that lead once again to a door in the inner pillar, this time with the initials CW within the golden cog in the center. As they walked over the catwalk, Albus pondered the initials of the door, it was a clear clue as to this master identity, but of the life of him he couldn't think of anyone they belong to. The finally reached the central door as Miss Jazmine grabbed the handle and opened the door. On the other side was the same sea of cogs and machinery that made the ceiling of the inner chamber, only now with them in the middle instead of afar, separated by only a similar catwalk that lead to a spiral staircase to their right. Despite their proximity, the cogs and wheels seem to give little to no noise, most likely charmed to remain silent. They acceded the stairs as Severus spoke up, saying with a little frustration "What in sort of blasted purpose could this collection of clockwork serve?" The neared the top as Miss Jazmine gave an amused smirk and said "funny you should mention that." Albus was perplexed until he reached to top, and for once in many a decade, Albus Dumbledore gave an audible gasp.

The stairs lead to a large stone walkway that stretched halfway into the radius of the circular chamber, with four identical pathways at each of the rooms four corners, all leading to a massive, central, circular platform of stone that sat in the middle of the sea of cogs. The outer surface of the platform was decorated with rare leather chairs and black wood, gold trimmed book cases and desks with an occasional display case that held an assortment of strange and curious trinkets. From the center of the platform started a strange metal platform of black and bronze curved plating, interlaced with simple glass that showed the detailed inner works of smaller, golden cogs that joined with the large sea below. In the middle of this metal platform was a raised section of circular steps at rose a standard story high and stopped with a 15 foot diameter circle at the top. The top platform had one, large central desk, made of black wood and trimmed in gilded gold with the same golden cog with the letter CW placed in the center of the front face of the desk. Behind the desk and directly opposite them was a massive clock face imbedded into the wall, reversed to show that it was the face of a clock tower, with a central horizontal pillar fastened from the center of the clock and hanging over the room, stopping in a series of cogs that hung several meters over the platform's desk and from a large black wood beam coming from the ceiling, which was to made from black wood and was triangularly arched and braced with large black wood beams. But it was none of this that made Albus gasp, no it was when he saw the starling amount of green and black. The large clock face was not comprised of some form of tempered glass, but of pure fel energy, it swirled and spun in green and black, moving like an ethereal liquid within the clocks surface. Bellow the clock face was open as the other worldly energies ran like a river down a troffer on the wall. The strange, water like power ran down into a large moat that ran down one of the large stone pathways and into two large moats within the central platform, one large one that timed the outer most edge of the platform, and one much smaller that ran the edge of the central metal platform. The outer ring of the central platform was raised slightly, as to keep the energies from flowing out and had large, black metal poles that lined the outer edge, each with their own flow of green and black energy don the middle. Mounted on each wear large, spinning, black gears with a large central hole in each that held a pool of swirling green and black, similar to the large clock face. Albus stood stunned, hardly believing what he saw.

Albus was not a man with a strict coded of plausibility; in fact he felt it was only healthy to expect the most impossible outcome in ones dealings, it was part of the reason he admired the Fenton parental figures so much. But not even he had his limits, and this fell squarely within them. They walked the three instructors awestruck at the sight before them as they reached the central platform and marveled. No one, no master of Occlumency, no wielder of hidden spiritual arts could have such free access to fel energy. No one could extract it, no one could channel it, it was a power reserved for the most powerful of spirits, but here it was, imbued into the very clockwork of the tower how … Albus paused in his walk as he remembered what the Severus had said and Miss Fenton's reaction,

 _Clockwork_

He looked up to the central desk and started in disbelief at the initials on the desk … it couldn't be. "Well, looks like someone's at a loss for words." A young voice echoed through the room, causing all but Miss Fenton to look about as she just shook her head it wasn't loud enough to be a shout and the source was instantly visible, so it must have been enchanted, but person in question sounded very young, around Mr. Potter's age if he wasn't mistaken. Miss Fenton then looked up to the ceiling, looking around the black wood and said "and someone's forgetting their manners, mister." A soft chuckle echoed as Miss Fenton finally honed her sight on of the black support beams, look directly at a small flash of silver. Albus followed her line of sight and could make out a dark silhouette before something leapt from the large support beam bellow, the dark figure continued to plummet to the floor, Albus would have brought out his wand to catch the figure if he didn't see the person in question wear such a confident smirk. A few meters from crashing headlong into the stone platform, the being flipped in midair, brought his hands up and stopped deafly in midair before lowering his hands a gently gliding to the floor before them, dark coat billowing and hood still up, not even disturbed by the stunt. Now much closer, Albus could see the stuntman was a quite young, right at the age of a fourth year moving into his fifth term. He wore an odd assortment of black garb and in his hand, a dark wood staff whose central gem glowed a soft green before becoming a soft blue. He moved his hand to his hood, with the same smirk plastered on his face "hey, I'm not rude; I just learned master's method of making an entrance." The boy's face smirk marginally increased as Miss Fenton just rolled her eyes at the younger boys joke and said "fine, I guess I'll be the mature one again, professors, this is my little brother Daniel Nightingale." So this was the young Nightingale. Albus observed the youth before him, he tall for his age, reaching just below Severus's chin, and his hair was more hopelessly unruly then young Harry's, longer as well, putt into a rather impressive ponytail that was bound by what appeared to be a cloth bandage. Just as his sister said, a black cloth blindfold covered his eyes, hiding his more inhuman quality, though she was also correct in that it seemed to affect his vision at all, as he looked between the group with crossed arms, notably turning to Albus, which he had a good idea as to why. Like his little sister, This Fenton seemed to have his own mental shields, though these seemed quite different. For one thing, while he didn't test the boy's skill, he could sense that the walls were much stronger than his younger counterpart, not only that, but seemingly ever present, showing the trained caution he held. He might have seemed a jokester on the outside, but Albus could tell from the very way the boy breathed, he was tense and focused, ready for possible threat the three English visitors may possess. It made sense, they boy did wield a staff, the tool of the covens more combat oriented division, it only made sense that he was trained to anticipate any sort of threat, which made Albus think. He had no plans on involving anyone this young in the war, but the boy before them was sufficiently trained, and he was contemplating recruiting his parents. Mabey he could make a small exception, not necessarily for combat, but the boy could help keep Harry and company safe, and having such a strong Occlumancer near the boy would certainly … "so," Albus's thought was cut short as Miss Jazmine addressed her brother "where's the master? I was told you and he had some business to deal with before meeting the headmaster and company." The Young Fenton gave a short shrug before saying "eh, it was nothing, the council called us in to talk, something about master giving to many hints, it was getting repetitive so he sent me out first." Council? What council did he mean? Albus wondered as Miss Jazmine just sighed and said "you'd think those floating eyes would realize just how little control they have over him." Floating eyes? A council of floating eyes? That sounded like… Albus's eyes widened, it couldn't be…

"That would imply, dear Jazmine..." another voice echoed through the room, but this one was different, it was deep and sounded old and powerful. Just then a blue vortex with two spinning clock hands appeared just in front of the central mechanism that hung over the desk. A being stepped forth, clad in purple and gold, with blue skin and red, pupiless eyes that bore through Albus's very soul "That the role of the observer had any control over anything in the first place." The portal disappeared from the creature as he and his fellow instructors gaped in awe, the youth's both turned to the being and gave a small bow as Miss Jazmine said "hello, Master Clockwork." Albus's head snapped to the girl, before turning again to the entity before him, so it really is him…

The being returned the bow before addressing the British wizard "It is good to meet you Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall." The ancient spirt gently floated down to his desk at sat in his chair, placing to float right beside him. He sat his elbows on the table before interlacing his hands and smirked said,

"Well, it's about time we begin."

 **OK, first real chapter out, still no tucker, but he's coming, as will the rest just give it time. A few things I want to note here,**

 **Sam and Tucker will NOT be getting animagus forms. It's not that I don't think they can't have them, but I can't keep giving out animal forms, I'm justifying Jazz and the Danny's having them as a sort of family thing and I do plan on other character being animagus (not saying who) but I don't want everyone suddenly turning into animals**

 **I intentionally did not say that when Danielle phased through the door she turned see through. That isn't because they're in clockworks tower either, if that was the case then the wizards would be phasing through everything so CW has installed human world enchanted doors. No the reason Danielle didn't go see though is because I'm eliminating the trait of intangibility. If I'm being perfectly honest, that part of the show always seemed pointless to me, yea I get it from a practical sense, showing the state the character's in to stop people from being confused, but in written form, I don't see much of a point. Not to say there won't be transparent characters, such as the Hogwarts ghosts, it's just that intangibility won't make them transparent.**

 **If I missed anything else you might want to ask, please post a question and I'll try to answer it in the next chapter. See you next time!**


	3. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2- Talks with the white rabbit that wears the cat's grin**_

In hindsight, this was rather obvious.

Severus stood beside Albus and Minerva as they stared, mouth agape at the being before them, yet strangely the only thing Severus could think was how so many of his previous questions had been answered. How did this master know of the spiritual arts? How could he reign in such a hotspot of spiritual activity? How could anyone possible guard another's mind? All so simply answered now that he wondered how he had missed it, but then again, who would actually believe themselves the focus of a god. He had read the tales, heard the legends of the great time master of the Nevernear, who wove the … wait the Nevernear?! Severus's eyes widened further, he remembered what Mr. Lancer had called this place, the clock watcher's tower, but that would mean that they were …

"In the Nevernear, why yes Professor Snape, you are indeed."

The time master's smirk grew as his two companions snapped their heads to him and back to the spirit in surprise as Severus schooled his features, and started to mentally panic. How had the being enter his mind?! He had no doubt that time's warden could easily breach his defenses, but even then he would have still sensed the intrusion. But no, Severus realized, the spirit didn't enter his mind, he just simply knew. He wasn't one fooled by Albus's act, the old man may appear omniscient but he knew the subtle gestures and careful machination that made his ruse. But this, this was no act, this was true omniscient, this was a being who knew everything from his birth to his death and it left Severus feeling the one thing he could not stand, vulnerable. There was so much of him that could be undone by the being before them, so many lies, so many fronts, so much that made his character that on the spirits whim could be destroyed. Severus gave an almost unnoticed wince as he remembered bad mouthing the time master multiple times both in his head and out loud over the course of this trip. The creature's smirk grew into a full grown grin as he looked straight at Severus before shaking his head and chuckling. It reminded the potions master of times spent in the office of the man next to him after a confrontation with James Potter and his ilk; it was both familiar and unnerving. Finally Albus seemed to gather enough of his wits to speak; he walked a few steps and with a look of calm trepidation said,

"I suppose asking how would be pointless, but I must ask…" Albus left a pause clearly on purpose, as if testing time's warden.

"Why?" The spirit finished, with a soft, ancient voice and an otherworldly echo, "I suppose that's fair."

The spirit sat up in his seat and grabbed the odd staff floating to his side and gave a quick tap on the floor. The moat of fel energy started to glow brighter as the green pools of the cogs lining the side of the platform started to shift and twirl, each showing an image of bizarre creatures. They were tall and inhumanly thin, draped in log white robes with no legs discernible beneath them. They had large black cloaks and were covered in green glowing skin, with long green claw like hands, each having one large eye in the center of their faces.

"For millennia, since the fall of the tyrant Pariah Dark, the Nevernear has been governed by an enigmatic and vigilant group of ghosts known as the council of Observants." The image changed again, with various scenes involving the strange spirits, some regulating trade between spirits; others were issuing decrees to a large collection of other spirits and some images of an entire group of the strange, single eyed beings deliberating the nuances of law.

"They filled the gap of political power after Pariah's fall and despite a few personal biases'…"

"Or a few blatant miss uses of power and authority."

A small grumped mumble came from Severus's side as he turned his head and remembered the two Fenton children were still in the room. The elder sister gave the boy a swat on his head for his rude interruption, but Severus noticed the gesture was half-hearted at best as even the time master seemed to make no motion to correct his young pupil's outburst. Apparently the authority of this otherworldly governance was not well respected, Severus noted as the time master continued,

"… They have been effective, at least, in terms of local affairs." The spirit taped his staff again as the pools of green started to swirl again. "But unfortunately, they don't have much power in regards to foreign problems."

The pools held new images, ones of wizards binding spirits to their will, of destroying and harvesting them ectoplasm and of others forcing spirits into dark rituals. The images were gruesome, never truly showing any gore details, but the implications were clear. The pools swirled again; dispelling the horrid imagery as the eldritch voice of the time master spoke,

"The council had to have some way of regulating our interaction with the mortal plane, but they themselves had little power outside of their sphere of control to lend to such a task." The spirit again taped his staff and said "so the council turned to me."

The pools all settled on the scene of a large council chamber filled with the one-eyed spirits. In the center were the time master and three cloaked figures, each carrying a staff and each bowing before the council. Time's warden spoke again,

"I trained a few choice wizards and witches and founded the Coven of Cronos, teaching them spells and techniques to effectively deal with renegade spirits and spirit binders." The scenes shifted, some of cloaked wizards banishing spirits, of wizards researching and testing their craft in the same stations on the ground floor below, and of cloaked wizards capturing and obliviating struggling spirit binders. The images swirled into green again as the spirit spoke, "for countless ages, I have guided the Coven as they maintained balance between the realms, some remained at my side, moving from location to location as deemed necessary, while others took my lessons and set up shop in set locations, handing down their knowledge to the next generation." He eyed the Fenton children for a second before turning to Albus and speaking again "which I suppose brings us to the here and now."

Albus nodded his head before turning it to eye the children himself and said "Seeing as it is fruitless to ask your master this, I will ask how much either of you know of the reason of our visit."

The two children shared a quick glance before the sister spoke, "We've heard the stories, the Covens don't exactly have structured news system but it's impossible to have missed this." Severus gave a small nod of understanding, after all the horror the dark lord incurred, it would be rather hard not to at least hear of his possible resurrection. The sister paused, turning to her brother who looked at the time master, who in turned nodded to the boy as he nodded to his sister. She turned and continued "but before the stories even hit, we had a major clue that something was going on."

Severus eyebrows rose ever so slightly in intrigue as he shared confused looks with his companions before turning again to the children as the younger brother spoke up "not too long ago, I sensed a dark presence emerge somewhere in the UK." The boy turned his head to each one of them before frowning in focus "it was faint, clearly shielded from detection, but I could still sense enough to feel chills. It felt disturbing and retched, like an open grave." That certainly sounded like the dark lord, and the time frame was correct, Severus nodded his head again as he saw his headmasters face contort into determined intrigue.

"So you could sense his return then, do you still feel his presence?" Albus inquired but unfortunately, the boy shook his head and said "no, shortly after I felt its aura, the presence disappeared, I've tried actively sensing the area, but it's not exactly easy to do so with an entire nation." The boy gave an annoyed huff and Severus gave a silent sigh, he couldn't help but slightly sympathize with the boy. Despite entering the dark lord's ranks as a spy, Severus still had no clue as to his true location. Whenever he met with the dark lord, it was always in preapproved locations and never in the same place twice. The one location he knew Voldemort spent any great amount of time was in the Malfoy manor, and even then he didn't know for how long at a time. Severus was about to speak up, asking if the boy had some clue as to the general vicinity, but the boy cut him short,

"But not pinpointing the aura wasn't the worst part." The boy lowered his head ever so slightly as a look of focused caution flashed across his face and Severus could swear he saw a soft blue glow emanating behind the boy's blindfold as he said "along with darker magic, I sensed a buildup of ectoplasmic energy mingled within."

Once again, Severus's eyebrows shot up in shock, he heard Minerva gasp as he turned his head looked at his headmaster as Albus's eyes widened before his eyes hardened and a concerned frown set in place. That was certainly news to him, nothing in his interactions with the dark lord even hinted of such a development. But then again, he wasn't exactly with the dark lord for any extended period of time. It seems Voldemort had become wary of Severus since his return into the dark lords ranks, understandable considering his closeness with Albus. But still, the implications of the dark lord developing some form of spiritual energy… He took a step closer to the boy and asked,

"This energy you sensed, did it originate from this dark presence? Perhaps it flared into being from a separate source."

Severus took a silent breath; it could be that the dark lord summoned and bound a spirit soon after Potter's escape, it was unlikely but a better alternative then what they feared. But the boy shattered their hope for an alternative solution,

"No, they were both defiantly coming from the same source, whatever ritual this Voldemort guy used to revive himself; it had to have had both magical and spiritual sources."

Severus steeled himself; if he was being honest it was sensible, at least when considering whom they were dealing with. While others would be aghast at altering themselves in such a way, the dark lord only saw power and a means to obtain it. It didn't matter if it left him in a less human form, so long as he could gain triumph, the dark lord would do anything; offer even his humanity to obtain it. He gave another silent sigh, things were spiraling out of his expectations and Severus found himself more and more out of his depth. Still, he could ground himself in a little satisfaction knowing the one of the day's biggest mysteries was solved. Given what the time master had said, it was clear as to the coven's motive now, to fulfill their ancient charge. And while the news of the dark lord's dabbling in the spiritual arts was certainly distressing, the fact that masters of said art were lending their aid was more than a little comforting.

"As you see," the deep and ancient echo of the time spirit spoke up and drew the attention of the room,

"We have a common enemy, but one I'm afraid we cannot reach alone," The ancient being rose from his chair and slowly walked around his desk,

"The political situation in Britain is one far too unstable for an open operation, I'm afraid even my influence cannot excuse what could be misunderstood as an act of war,"

The time master smirked as he reached the front of his desk, "but this is not the first time we've meet with such restrictions," the spirit grabbed a few sections of parchment from the top of dark wood and walked down the steps of the central device to the group as he spoke.

"While we can't openly support your order, we can take advantage of a few loop holes."

The spirit stopped before Albus and presented the documents; his headmaster raised an intrigued eyebrow and took the papers, giving them a quick read. His eyebrows shot up and said,

"Student transfers?"

All heads turned to the young Fenton siblings, whose expression ranged from mild annoyance from the boy and ecstatic shock from girl. The boy gave a soft, mocking groan and said

"Great, we're never going to hear the end of this, are we Jazz?"

That apparently knocked the girl from her excitement as she turned to give her brother a glare before once again giving him a half-hearted smack to the head. Severus looked at the boy intrigued and said,

"You don't seem all to surprise about this revelation Mr. Fenton."

The boy merely shrugged and said in a dry sarcastic tone

"When I heard that the group we'd be talking to would be led by a school's headmaster I figured this would happen, for being an ancient enigmatic spirit of time, master clockwork has a habit of putting people out of their comfort zone for his own amusement."

The spirit in question didn't even look at the boy as he raised his now free hand and with a simple twirl of his fingers levitated the boy, spun him upside-down and dropped him on the floor below. The boy gave a surprised "oomph" as the spirit spoke up with a noticeable smirk on both his face and in his voice,

"I assure you, that despite Mr. Fenton's youth and dry wit, he is one of the most highly trained and capable combat operatives in the coven, having participated in numerous operations around the globe and has traversed much of the Nevernear itself."

The boy had risen from the floor, rolled his eyes (or at least it looked like he did, Severus couldn't be sure with the blindfold in the way) and gave a small, polite bow at his master's words. The spirit turned to the boy,

"while he still has much still to learn, I can promise you that he has more than enough training to handle the task, as do the others."

Albus once again looked at the papers in hand, shuffling through them and giving them a quick read as the time master continued,

"Along with young Danny here, I have written transfer requests for a Miss Samantha Manson, another young prodigy from our combat division, the one you heard from Jazmine on the way here."

Severus hummed in contemplation, in truth the fact that their needed ally seemed to be giving them children for the task was a little aggravating. But he supposed that if the children were as developed in spiritual arts as their master suggested, he couldn't really complain.

"Along with these two is the request for a mister Tucker Foley whom you might know as having a hand in upgrading the Fenton wondrous technology."

The children looked at each other confused, but simply shrugged, apparently use to their master referencing conversations that no one but himself could know about.

"And, as for Miss Fenton here…"

The spirit gave a small wave of his hand to Albus, undoubtedly aware of what section of documents he was about to read. Once again Albus gave a quick scan of the parchment before his eyes widened in confused surprise,

"Hmm, this certainly is … unorthodox," Albus said lifting his head from the parchment as the time master responded,

"True, but not against the rules, certainly a first, but I believe it is a marvelous solution." The time master gave a small grin as Albus beamed,

"Yes! You're quite right, from what I have gathered she certainly has the qualifications, and the precedent this would set is far too beneficial!"

Severus quirked an eyebrow before he moved closer to Albus, it was time to break up this hidden little dissection.

"If I may ask headmaster, but is this _marvelous_ solution?" he said in as dry and flat a tone as his natural sarcastic nature could produce (Severus swore he saw a nod of respect from the young Fenton boy, but it was irrelevant). Albus turned to him and Minerva with a large grin and the ever frustrating twinkle in his eye. Severus had many things that he found personally disastrous, but the blasted twinkle in his headmaster's eyes counted among the worst. It meant crazed old wizard had an " _unconventional"_ idea pop into his head, and given the size of the smile on that old wrinkled face, it was one that would turn many a head. Albus turned to the children and walked a few feet from the elder sister. He cleared his throat and said,

"Miss Jazmine, while it would be an honor for you to attend Hogwarts as one of its students, I'm afraid that would be quite impossible."

The girls face fell into a disappointed frown, she tried to put on a strong face, but the way her eyes glistened it seemed she would be soon asking to politely leave the room. But despite this, Albus kept that insufferable grin as he spoke again as he held up a few pages from the stack of parchment,

"Yes, based on this transcript here you have far exceeded our academic expectations, so enrolling you would be a fruitless endeavor for you I'm afraid."

The girl dropped her frown as she gave the headmaster a look of confusion, as did everyone in the room besides the aggravatingly all-knowing spirit, who simply gave small smirk.

"So, after evaluating your records Miss Fenton, I would like to offer you a position as _assistant_ professor of transfigurations at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry."

Severus nearly dropped his chin, but reined it in. Albus and the time spirit were right, it certainly was a first, but he couldn't really find a reason to argue against such an appointment. From what little he had herd of Muggle education indicated that a similar system was used for many gifted students, and while he would never admit this aloud, the girl did seem qualified for the job. Severus turned to the children, and again nearly lost control of his cool temperament, but this time from amusement rather than shock. The boy had slapped his forehead and groaned in a way very reminiscent to his younger sister, while the girl had clasped her hands to her face as a startled gasp escaped. But that didn't last long before she dropped her clasped hands held a face of such exuberant joy that it made the ever present grin of the children's father look depressing by comparison. She looked ready to launch into a thousand questions before Albus held up his hand and spoke with obvious amusement,

"Now before this offer becomes official, I would like to ask my transfigurations instructor if she approves, after all, it would be she you would work under."

The group turned to Minerva, The young woman looked at the older cat animagus looking both shy and hopeful. Minerva donned her usual air of professionalism and said,

"Well, this is certainly unprecedented, why I've never herd of Hogwarts ever offering such a position such as this before."

She paused for just a second before smirking just a touch,

"But Miss Fenton certainly seems more than qualified."

Her smirk gave way into a small smile and said,

"I would be delighted to work with you my dear." The Eldest Fenton child beamed as the younger gave a soft sigh and a small smile of his own.

"Yep, defiantly never hearing the end of this." Albus gave a quick chuckle before addressing the girl again,

"Yes well, before all of this, we do need to speak with your parents, if they allow it, you more than welcomed to position."

"Oh, that won't be much of a problem." The ancient echo of the time master spoke up as all heads turned to the spirit.

"While the assignment will officially be manned by Daniel and Samantha, the doctors Fenton will be more than willing to hop across the pound to aid the order, so long as or good headmaster has no objections."

The spirit smirked at Albus who in turn gave a small amused chuckle, carefully folding the stack of parchment and placing them into his robes as he spoke "None what so ever, they would be a welcome addition to the order."

Severus's already present frown drooped lower as he found himself tempted to mirror the boy. These two where becoming insufferable, being far too much like potter and his little troublemaking gang when they were about to do something horrible foolish. He was tempted to break the little party of conspiracy again if he hadn't noticed the tension in the headmaster's hands. Normally, when he felt safe, Albus had a tendency to let his hands wander. Whither shuffling through his paperwork or petting his phoenix or just gripping a nearby handrail, he always seemed to calm himself with something to do with his hands. But when he felt guarded, He would simple clasp them, just as he was now. Over all his demeanor wouldn't change, a still ever present smile and warm Countenance so well placed that not even Severus well trained eye could spot the difference, But all action outside a few steps would cease. He would do as he did now, keep his hands clasped, his feet firmly planted and even while keeping a warm front, would barely even blink. It was a masterfully crafted stance; both open a friendly while being ready for any provocation, an ever present reminder of just how dangerous a man lay under that foolish exterior. But Severus noted a bit more tension in those clasped hands; something about the spirit still unnerved Albus. Severus could understand, this was an ancient being of near limitless ability, who wouldn't remain on guard? But he could tell there was something more, something that Albus couldn't reconcile. He turned his head around the room to gauge if any others picked up on the underlining tension. Minerva, if aware, did as he and made no outside acknowledgement, but Severus knew her sharp eyes wouldn't miss such a development. And if the Eldest Fenton girl held any kind of suspicion, it was dashed by her new appointment as she wore an ever present grin. But the boy, while seemingly still exasperated by his sister enthusiasm was different. To the untrained, the boy seemed to simply just standing there, but Severus could see he was still on guard himself. He held a firm grasp on his staff, ready to use it at any time, while his feet always stayed at shoulder width apart, and his attention always shifting between the three as his head moved only the slightest amount to focus on them. It was decently hidden, but anyone with a keen eye wouldn't miss the signs, but then again they were in the office of a time god, perhaps the boy didn't see the necessity of subtly.

"Speaking of which: Jasmine, Danielle." The spirit turned to the two Fenton's and with a small smile,

"Would you be so kind as to collect Danielle, as well as Miss Manson and Mister Foley? You will find them in the training hall." The spirit tilled his head just enough so that Severus could see the smile turn back into a smirk "just bring them outside the office door, we will be along shortly, after I finish answer a couple of professor Dumbledore's questions."

The boy gave a small quirk of his brow, but gave a small bow to his master as Ms. Fenton gave a smaller respectful nod before both children walked across the platform, across the walkway and to the steps that descended into the sea of cogs. As they descended the stairs, the boy turned to the group and once again a soft blue glow seemed to shine through the black cloth over his eyes before the head disappeared from their sight. Severus turned to his headmaster, who before held his usual soft a gentle smile of disarmament now wore a serious of focused frown as he faced time's warden. His expression was not openly hostile, but certainly grimmer then he'd ever seen the old man wear outside the confidence of his council. It was an odd thing to Severus that he should see Albus with probably the most genuine look he'd ever given to another, but then again, the time master had proven that such hidden front were pointless before him.

The sound of a door closing signaled the children's departure, well and truly out of earshot as Albus simply stared at the spirit who in turn never dropped his smirk, neither making a sound. For several seconds the two simply stared, as Severus stood, still ever present frown in place, with only the tiniest for beads of sweat appearing invisibly on his brow in anticipation. It was clear that Albus had unfinished business with spirit, but he seemed reluctant to openly question, already pointing out the redundancy of asking an omniscient being. But the spirit himself seemed content to wait for the question to come, apparently trying to coax Albus into ask his question anyway, as if accepting the sign of weakness. The spirit chuckled gave Severus a brief look as his smirk widened and a chill again ran down his back. Before, much of the conversation was focused on the children and their placement in the sorted affair, So Severus did as he always did, sequestered himself in his own mind as he keenly watched the situation unfold. But now with the children gone, he was left thrust back into focus, which wouldn't be such a problem if not for their present host. Severus gave an inaudible gulp of air as he clasped his hands behind his back and again felt so very vulnerable. After a few more seconds, Albus finally gave a soft sigh and said,

"I haven't felt like this in the longest time, not since facing the other side of my desk after throwing that "essence of vibrant color" elixir into my charms instructor's hair my fourth term."

Albus gave small chuckle at the memory as Severus could help but level the most deadpan stare at his headmaster, wondering how Albus could have ever made head boy. The spirit gave a similar chuckle before speaking himself,

"Yes, the good Professor Hudglepin never could take a good joke." Time's warden chuckled again as he rose again up the steps of the platform's central device. He stopped a few steps from the middle and turned to the group.

"But you Albus always did remember your lessons, one if recall was 'the only way you'll gain the answer to your question, is to ask it in the first place.'"

Albus's face again drew into a grim frown; he stared up the spirit and said,

"You entered stating the limited power of the watchman; correct me if I'm wrong, but is that not your vocation as well."

Severus couldn't hope to stop his eyes from widening, while still not open hostile, there was an undeniable tone of accusation in his headmaster's tone. Had the old man gone mad? The spirit simply stood there, smirk still present as Albus continued,

"You may dabble here or there, but only with a hidden hand, and only to prevent things from veering from their intended course."

Albus paused again and pulled out the unmistakable time turner necklace from somewhere in the old mans robes,

"many a young witch and wizard misunderstand the nature of this device, some come to believe that with this, horror's such as Tom Riddles rise to power could be prevented, but if that were possible, if it was _allowed_ …"

Albus's brow dropped as his eye's came closest to a glare that Severus had ever seen the wizard's face. Albus dropped the hand that held the time turner and swiftly placed the small necklace back into the inner pocket of his robe as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Time's warden and caretaker, to preserve its safe passage from any bias, including your own."

A heave silence filled the room as Albus let his words hang in the open, only the sounds of the great clock above them made any notable sound. Severus himself looked at his headmaster in contemplation, never had he seen Albus so accusatory. It was as if his headmaster took the manipulations of the time master as some personal insult. The spirit himself however, seemed unaffected by Albus's sudden reprimand; in fact the time master seemed even more pleased, slowly shaking his head as he gave an echoing chuckle.

"Forgive me…" Time's warden said, his chuckle dyeing again behind soft grind of gears above them,

"I do not wish to make light of your anger, considering its source..." the spirit turned ever so slightly, just enough to full face Albus, staring the headmaster down with his red, pupiless eyes,

"You are a powerful man, Albus Dumbledore, and in your time you've learned that when powerful men make steps forward, tremors of consequence follow. And so you've moved with an ever cautious step, always mindful your surroundings, for you have learned that even the hand guided by the purest of intent can so easily crush meant to be guarded."

Albus's remained neutral as the spirit spoke, and would seem unfazed by the spirits choice of words, but Severus could see the almost invisible twitch of the headmaster's hands behind his back. Apparently the Time master hit a nerve, and intentionally, judging by the look the spirit gave.

"And now, here comes an enigmatic group with resources you could scarcely imagine, led by an ancient power whose motives you couldn't begin to fathom, all offering aid to defend against a looming horror only you and your closest allies seem even aware of. I must admit, it certainly enough to leave one uncomfortable."

The spirit once again chuckled before continuing,

"But I am afraid, dear professor that you do need some correcting,"

The spirit leveled his staff vertically, keeping in ever so slightly off the ground.

"You unfortunately share with my employer's, the Obervants, a very greaves misconception of my work."

Time's warden brought the staff down to the ground with a familiar clack as the swirling pools of fel energy within the cogs again turned into a variety of images, from the construction of the pyramids of Giza, to address of a roman emperor, to the crowing of the king Arthur, and even a scene of the four founders of Hogwarts overlooking the construction of the castle.

"The Observants view time like a parade…"

The images started to change, constantly changing from scene to scene, from the great fire of Rome, to the mounted elephants of Hannibal charging into a roman legion. From the muggle American revolutionary war, to the coalition of American covens that meat in secret soon after the war and so on, each showing a different historical event taking place.

"Each key event happening one after another in a set sequence..."

The spirit once again tapped his staff on the floor as the images again swirled into green and black as the time master spoke,

"I view the parade from above…"

The spirit raised his free hand and gestured around to each cog,

"To see which turn it might..."

The swirling pools settled again, and Severus for once gave an audible gasp. Each scene had changed, one held Hannibal of cartridge storming the streets of Rome, another held an image of Salazar Slytherin seated in the headmaster's office with a chained Godric Gryffindor before him. One held the image of a man in Serbia holding an article talking of the failed assassination of Archduke Ferdinand a few days prior and another was of Morgan le Fay burning a medieval London to the ground. But none of these held his focus, only one brought him to gasp. He looked at the one directly to his left as it held an image of his beloved Lily, dancing in front of a large park fountain, much like that insufferable picture the werewolf handed potter, but with a tremendous change. Instead of James potter, her partner was undoubtedly Severus himself, looking significantly less pale and with a true smile on his face. Like that, his strong front, his cold indifference melted as he felt a few tear prick in his eyes, his right hand unconsciously lifted and drifted to the cog raised above his head. His logical side, the side that usually held so much sway in his actions told him the likelihood of this merely being an illusion, a trick conceived by the spirit to confound him. But any and all reasoning left him as he stood in saddened awe of the image before him, basking in just how real in seemed,

That there could … that there just might actually be somewhere … in some distant time… the pool of fel energy swirled again as the heavenly scene that so haunted him dissolved, and Severus found himself nearly crying out for its return. He turned to the Time master, who in turn tilted his head ever so slightly to Severus, his still ever present smirk morphing into what might be a look of sympathy for a second before Turing again to face Albus,

"… or might not take."

There was a heave pause, the reality of the situation set in as Severus schooled himself back into as much of his cold indifference as he could. He looked to Albus and found his face pale, seemingly trying to collect himself as well from whatever the pools reflected, to his side he saw Minerva as she dried a few tears of her own. Apparently they were all shown a scene of what could have been, though what the others saw, he didn't know, he was too … preoccupied. The spirit spoke again,

"Know this, time may have a powerful flow, but the direction and destination of its flow is beyond any power to direct, whither by my hand or another's."

The spirits smirk morphed into a gentler smile,

"But that current is set by those who reside in its pull, even one such as I cannot escape its flow."

The spirt began to descend the steps of the raised device, speaking has he moved

"All I ultimately have power over is the same as anyone; prepare the best I can with whoever finds my cause worthy to bare."

The spirit reached the bottom of the steps and stopped before Albus,

"Now I believe we have some spectral scientists to meet, the children should be arriving just about now."

The spirt quickly walked past the group and towards the catwalk the child had taken to leave,

"Whoever finds your cause worthy to bare."

Albus echoed as he turned fully to the time master across the platform, who had paused in his walk, keeping his back to the group. Gone was the edge of his voice, while sounding outwardly strong, Severus couldn't help but think that Albus felt more and more tired.

"Like the young mister Nightingale?"

Now Severus knew Albus was tired, wither mentally fatigued or physically, his headmaster had never seemed so fully bereft of energy. Whatever Albus had seen in the pool of chaotic energy had certainly left its toll, as the contrast of his mood seemed so drastic. Where before laid a note of fire and anger, now Albus sounded so melancholy, almost remorseful in tone.

"You have a great amount of faith in the boy, but that could be a dangerous thing."

It seemed speaking was reinvigorating to Albus as his tone grew less saddened and more defiantly neutral,

"Such pressure could harm the boy, you may have trained him, but if he is not ready, you could break him."

The spirit didn't respond at first, but then came a echoing chuckle, similar in tone as his others but held a greater power, seemingly echoing even greater than before,

"I know…"

His voice took on a whole new unworldly quality, bouncing off the wall in an echoing choirs and holding a power in it that left Severus feeling slightly nervous,

"But then again…"

The spirit turned his head ever so slightly so that the group could see his face, the spirits smirk took on a dangerous edge, seeming almost playfully yet threatening, and it put a chill down Severus's spine.

"I know everything."

 **Ok, first off, I would like to apologize for the grammatical mistakes, as well as any in this one. One thing I haven't mention before is that I actually have a form of dysgraphia, not enough to prevent me from writing, but enough to have to rely on spell check more than I'd like. Another thing is I'd like apologies for the spacing of the last chapter; again I'm new so I wasn't quite sure how to structure this. And Finally I'd like to appetize about the much shorter length of this chapter compared to the first. Looking back I realized I might have put WAY too much into the first chapter, I was really just aiming to get as far as I felt along so we don't have like 6 chapters to sit through before they actually get to London. Again, I hope you like this and I really appreciate your feedback, please enjoy.**


	4. Stormy meeting with the hatter

**Very sorry this has taken so long to come out, I've been trying to secure my next semester while at the same time dealing with holiday madness, I'll try and get these finished sooner Also, everyone give a big hand to Serene Strayu, for beta-ing this chapter and hopefully future installments, check out her work.**

 **I do not own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter.**

 _ **Chapter 3-Return of the weary rabbit hunters and a stormy meeting with the Hatter**_

"So you actually ditched the observants?" Sam said, eyebrow raised as Danny rubbed the back of his neck,

"well, master clockwork said I was good to leave, besides…" he dropped his hand as he gave a casual shrug of his shoulders, "it's not like I haven't heard it all before..." he shifted his staff into his left hand and with his right dramatically pointed and spoke in an overdramatic deep voice

"Clockwork, you must do this! Clockwork, you must stop that! Clockwork, we've told you countless times to destroy the boy!"

Danny dropped his hands and snorted "Really, at this point I could recount their speeches in my sleep, screw council of observants, they should be called the council of naggers."

The group gave a good couple of chuckles as the golden cog lift finally stopped on the top floor, the five of them left the lift as Danny looked over the group. Sam was in human form, wearing a dark purple turtleneck with a frowning cartoon skull on its chest. Below that she wore long black pants, similar to her ghost form, but with no discernible pattern woven in and made of simple cloth instead of the magical spectral cloth of her ghost form's clothing. She wore black socks and simple black tennis shoes with black laces. Around her neck was the same ice crystal that in her ghost form, clasped her cloak, in human it hung off a dark iron chain necklace. Her hair was just as long as it was in her ghost form, tied into a single long pony tail with a new large black bat hair clip. She had a light amount of her typical gothic makeup and a small amused smirk on her face. In one hand she held her short staff, still giving a soft blue glow from her practice and in the other she held a typical DADA textbook.

Next to her was Tucker, who wore a black shirt that showed a cartoonish depiction of the evolution of man, only instead of man, it was the evolution of the computer. On top of that he wore a yellow, zip up hoody along with long tan khaki pants that whenever he walked gave a resounding clack of the numerous gadgets he held in many of his pockets. On his feet he wore long white socks and his usually tan hiking boots and on his head was his ever present red beret that seemed to almost never leave his head. On his left wrist was a similar device to that of Danny's parents, only slightly different. The band was generally smaller than that of Danny's folks, save for an elongated section on top that came to a rounded edge about a third of the way down tuckers forearm, forcing tucker to wear the strange device over his hoody sleeve. The device was tuckers dream project, something he always updated and upgraded and treated like it was his own child, and acted as both his PDA and wand.

When Sam and Tucker entered the Coven, Sam made it apparent that there was no place for her in the organization other than the combat division, but Tucker chose a different approach. He couldn't join the combat division… well he could, but couldn't dedicate himself beyond adequate physical performance. Instead, Clockwork had him train under the catalyst makers of the coven, learning the coven's unique way of making personalized magical catalysts. With his love of tech, magical ability, and access to both Fenton tech and the covens own resources, Tucker developed his own brand of magical tech, with his own personalized computational catalyst. He named the tech M.M.A, Magical Mechanical Assistant, and spent much of own personal study time on different ways to improve it. He was currently tapping away at the device as the conversation progressed,

"That may true dude, but you shouldn't outright ignore them, they already hate you, no need to give'm more ammo."

Danny shrugged as Danielle spoke up, floating at eye level with the group "whether he ignores them or not, it doesn't make a difference, these guys flat out hate hybrids." She gave a small huff and crossed her arms, she still kept herself partially transformed as her tail began to wave and sway beneath her.

"What I want to know," Danielle continued, "is why they seem so perfectly ok with Vlad doing whatever he wants. I don't hear them complain about every step and breath he still takes."

Danny shook his head as the group came to a stop in the middle of the catwalk to Clockworks office.

"oh trust me, they're no fans," he said, turning to his little sister with a small smirk, "they don't actively discuss him, at least not so openly, but in the rare events that they do need to acknowledge he exists, they never use his name, just 'the elder halfa' and when they do, it's like they're trying very hard not to spit it out."

He sat on top the walkways guide bar as Sam came up next to him, Tucker stayed in the middle as Jazz just cautiously leaned against it and Danielle aimlessly hovering between them.

She gave small snort and replied "So they're just being wusses, they can't actually go after the big bad halfa, just the one with a hero-complex."

The others gave another soft chuckle, except Danny who gave a small snort at the comment. He gave a small shake of his head as he was about to give his reply before the door at the other end of the catwalk opened. Out came the British wizards, with master clockwork as their guide as they made their way to Danny and company. He noted that they looked a little shaken from their private talk; of course they would never show this outwardly, but by the subtle way their aura's fluctuated, he could tell they were unnerved.

Aura sensing would always mystify Danny, even after it became natural for him. He had first learned how to use Aura sensing among his first lessons with Clockwork as simple means to identify and prepare for an incoming attacks. But it wasn't until he had donned his blindfold that he had unlocked its potential. Back then, focusing past his blindfold became annoying and painful, having to constantly focus to look, so he used aura sensing to help alleviate the burden and was shocked at what he felt.

It was like and unlike his regular sight all at once; His masters had told him that with training, he could feel everything around him, but being the little kid he was at the time, he barely payed attention. Now however, they're words made so much sense. It was like a veil of inky black had replaced invisible air, allowing for a few different spots and shades of gray to indicate a difference in atmosphere around him. The ground, walls, anything inanimate would be softer or sharper shades of blue flames, changing and contorting in shape to its visible counterpart with stark contrasts in color and density depending on any noteworthy change in the object's energy. This secondary sight, however, was not limited through just his eyes; it was like he was given a full, radial sphere of perception that would stretch on to the limits of his subconscious, and expand with a small amount of effort.

People and other organisms where a menagerie of a dancing bluish flame in a mock shape of their visible selves; they're energy, or Aura as it was actually called, fluctuating and alternating in shape or color depending on their state. It was fascinating and strange to Danny, not only in the appearance of the world behind this other sense but just how much information he could garner. Despite not having a visible component to discern in this state, he could still discern the color and even the composition of an object or person. He had no real way to describe it; he simply just gained the information at a glance. It was like discerning why certain smells felt the way they did, it was just how his brain processed it.

The first time he discovered this strange new sense, it had overwhelmed him, but after consulting his master, Danny harnessed this extra sense and refined it to the point of reflex. Nowadays he rarely even looked past his blindfold, opting to just sense everything around him. He didn't need to cut off his vision to use this extra sense, but he had grown accustom to the blindfold in his human form, given the usefulness in reading those around him. The 3 blue flames that represented the wizards flowed erratically, in such a way that he had come to know as distress. Interesting, but not really surprising, they were left alone with master Clockwork after all.

The wizards and spirit came to a halt in front of them as Danny and the others stopped leaning on the railings and moved to the middle of the catwalk. Master clockwork stepped aside and with his free hand motioned to the group.

"Now then for a few more introductions, you all have met the Fenton children, but these two…" Master clockwork motioned to both Sam and Tucker as they both gave short nods of recognition, "…are the other two transfer students, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley."

Sam gave a small frown, but didn't say anything as Tucker gave a small smile and wave. Professor Dumbledore came forward, a small welcome smile on his lips as he had his hands folded behind his back. It was quick, but Danny noticed the Professor noted both Sam's staff and Tucker's wrist.

"Hello there Miss Manson and Mister Foley, I am Professor Dumbledore, I trust young Mister and Miss Fenton told you the reason of our visit." The two nodded as Dumbledore's smile widened "Good! Then as Headmaster I would love to welcome you both to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, provided your parents agree to the transfer of course."

Danny gave a small, near unnoticeable snort as he looked at his nerdy friend, Tucker's parents would be no problem. They may not have been as ecstatic as Danny's about the whole your son is magic, but were still supportive of his magical education. He highly doubted they would have any real objections to the transfer, especially if it involved the words 'highly acclaimed boarding school'. The whole helping out a war effort might make them falter a bit, Danny thought, but he still doubted they'd say no. He had no question that if it wasn't for Mr. Foley's work, Tucker's friendship with Danny, and the educational opportunities given to Tucker by the coven, the Foley's would have left Amity's haunted and dangerous streets a long time ago. War or not, a School year watched over by the some of the best of Britain's magical community was a much safer option. He looked next to Tucker and frowned as he glanced at Sam, the issue for her wouldn't be if they would approve, in fact the issue would be that they would agree in a heartbeat.

Dumbledore turned to his two companions and mirrored Danny's master by giving each an acknowledging wave of the hand "and these two are my fellow instructors at Hogwarts, Professor Severus Snape …" The dark man kept his seemingly ever present indifferent frown as he gave a short nod in the group's direction, not so much giving a word. Dumbledore continued, not missing a beat "… and Professor Minerva McGonagall." The teacher gave a small polite smile and a much deeper dip of the head then her counterpart.

Tucker gave a small nod to both, keeping his smile and said a simple "'sup" which seemed to leave the three British wizards puzzled. Sam gave a soft laugh and spoke up "I see you don't speak 'geek trying too hard to be cool' I'll translate for you. He said hello."

Tuck gave an indignant wine as Sam to stock of the foreign company, folding her arms as she looked over to McGonagall and said in an inquisitive tone "so you're _the_ Minerva McGonagall."

The professor quirked her head in confusion and respond "yes Miss Manson, I am, have you by chance read my work as well?"

Sam gave a quick chuckle and said "don't have to with your biggest fan as my tutor; She cites your work more than the actual textbooks." Danny didn't even need to sense the increasing red that colored his older sister's cheeks. Sam quirked an eyebrow and asked "she hasn't hounded you for autographs already has she?"

"Sam!" Jazz's yell only served to amuse Sam more as both she and Danielle shared a chuckle. Clockwork spoke up then, a small smirk on his face,

"Well, now that the group is properly introduced, perhaps we should make our way to Fenton works. I'm sure the Doctor's Fenton are anticipating their children's return."

His master turned to Danny and said "Daniel, if you wouldn't mind."

Danny gave a small nod before turning around and lifting his free hand to the other end of the catwalk. After hardly any concentration, a swirling black and green vortex emerged, startling the visiting teachers. He didn't need to look directly at them to tell he had some questions to answer, but he turned to look anyway, just to be polite. The three seemed to regain their composure, a little more quickly than he expected, but given the weird day they've had so far, he doubted much more would surprise them at this point.

"I guess you guys would like an explanation." He asked, his hand unconsciously rose to rub the back of his neck. Dumbledore stepped forward, a simple eyebrow raised as he tried to act as calm as possible. Danny had to admit, this guy's acting could give Vlad a run for his money, but he couldn't hide his aura, which by the look of it meant that he was bursting with curiosity.

"I must admit Mister Nightingale, I am intrigued. I assume this is some sort skill from the spiritual arts?" Man this guy was good, though Danny had to admit after giving it a little thought, it was kind of obvious; Still, kudos to the guy for quick thinking.

"well yes and no," Danny answered as he gave a small shrug of the shoulders "while it's true there are a few general skills inherent to the spiritual arts, much of what one can do is developed on a personal level." He moved his free hand to the portal "the portal you see is a unique skill that I developed, among others." Danny brought his free hand to his chest and waved between himself and the other halfas.

"Danielle, Sam, and I, each one of us has a unique set of skills that pertains to how our spiritual powers developed."

Danny turned and gave Danielle a nod, which she returned, then raised her arm and produced a small flame in her hand. The three teachers look impressed, but not all surprised, understandable given these guys were advanced magic users.

"Danielle, as you can see, developed pyrokinesis while Sam on the other hand…"

He waved a hand to her who gave a small nod, tossing her book to tucker who clumsily caught it and raised her free hand. It gave a soft forest green glow as vines began to wrap and grow around her hand and wrist, buds popping up and blooming into beautiful blueish purple blossoms. That had them surprised, as Dumbledore took a few steps forward and Sam handing him one of the buds to examine in his hand. He spun the blossom in his hand and breathed an amazed "astounding."

Sam, deciding to finish for Danny, cleared her throat and the three teacher's eyes fell on her. "I gained my powers from an elemental spirit of plant life, giving me biokinesis, or the ability to conjure and control plants."

Dumbledore, still gave an amazed stare before giving an appreciative nod and a friendly smile, Sam returned the nod and lowered her hand, giving a small wave as both the vines and the blossom in the old man's hand dissipated into nothing. Dumbledore gave a lasting glance at the disappearing blossom, pausing a second after it vanished and said,

"Fascinating, I had no idea that the spiritual arts could produce such diverse elemental abilities."

The old wizard raised his head and gave Danny an intrigued look before asking "I am curious Mr. Nightingale, as to what element you command."

Danny raised an eyebrow in suspicion; sure he could have just guessed that Danny, like the other two, had an element but he couldn't help but feel a little wary of the old man. From what Danny could sense, the old wizard was just as, if not more powerful than all the rumors about him suggest, in both his spell work and in his mental control. He could tell that the Headmaster hadn't used this ability, at least not yet, and while he was still a powerful in his legilimency, Danny was sure his spiritually strengthened guard could withstand an assault. That and judging by the feel of his aura, Danny got the impression that Dumbledore wouldn't be so invasive without good reason. Still, that fact he could feel it, that the old man could at any moment try and tap into anyone of their minds made Danny feel uneasy. Fortunately the knowledge of his master's wards and accepting nature of the man in question was slowly relaxing him, but he remembered his lessons well; always keep your guard up.

He turned to fully face the old man and lifted his free right hand with palm face up, similar to both Sam and Dani. His hand gave a soft blue glow as a frosty mist pooled around it, and number of ice crystals started to form and orbited in small rings around his palm.

"I have cryokinesis; I can control and conjure ice."

Danny dissipated the ice and motioned his hand towards the portal "Now, not to be rude, but can we go now? It's not easy keeping a portal open this long."

Dumbledore's look of curiosity melted into a gentle smile and said "no I don't suppose it is."

With that the group as a whole made their way to the portal at the end of the catwalk. With as much composure as possible, the three Hogwarts teachers entered the vortex, followed by Clockwork, Danny's friends, and Danny himself, who closed the portal behind him.

(~)

Albus had to admit it; this was not what he expected.

He remembered the last strange vortex he had entered this day, namely the one that brought him across the world while flying within that amazing craft of the Fenton's, but this otherworldly doorway was much different. Before, the transit was instantaneous from one point to the next, with only a flash of bright green accompanying them. This however was like walking atop a strange corridor of green liquid, though he knew better than to think it was merely liquid, the knowledge of which left once again astounded. The boy might not have acknowledged it as such, but Albus knew full well that this corridor of energy couldn't be anything other than fel energy, meaning the boy (or possibly even all three of the spiritually trained children) had power over the ancient force. Once again he was amazed, from young Miss Fenton's tale; he had assumed that the children in question had only had a simple measure of ectoplasm infused into them, giving a few spiritual abilities.

But this, elemental control, the ability to traverse the worlds, this was certainly beyond anything he could have imagined. He gave a few quick glances behind him at his newest charges. The eldest Fenton daughter might not have spiritual abilities of her younger siblings, but she was still quite the accomplished witch. Coupled with her knowledge of her parents work and her level attitude, she will be of great help to the order and great support to Harry in the coming semester. Then there was the young Mr. Foley; Albus recognized the device the boy had been tapping on as a similar tool the Fenton's were using, however with a very drastic difference. Whereas the couple's tools were empowered by basic spiritual energies, Albus could sense the telltale traces of magic emanating from the boy's device, too similar to be anything other than the boy's own unique catalyst. If he remembered correctly, the Fenton's had mentioned that Mr. Foley had designed the strange device himself, making him the youngest crafter Dumbledore had even seen. He would have to remember to speak with this young man; any crafter no matter their age would be invaluable to the order.

Albus gave a quick glance from the elder sister and young crafter to the three spiritual users. The young Miss Manson had already proven herself to have quite the defiant streak, her attitude and body language spoke of one who refused to be ignored. Which he could hardly refute given her abilities, which Albus had to admit, he had never seen before. Magic itself was not unfamiliar with the elements; there were a plethora of elemental spells one could perform. But they were considered higher level material, and even most of the spells in question were hardly beyond simple manipulation, nothing like what these children could do. And despite a multitude of odd or unique spells, Albus had never heard of any that could command plant life; much less conjure such life by will.

He watched as the girl was engaged in a personal discussion with the youngest Fenton child, the girl seemingly orbiting her older companion as her tail swished to and fro without thought. The Youngest continuously baffled Albus, from her unique animagus form to the pendant around her neck, which hummed with too familiar a magic to be anything else but a magical catalyst. Then there was the young Mr. Nightingale, who despite giving his younger sister a warm smile as he listened to her talk, stood ever guarded. Albus eyed the young wizard a little closer, there was far more to the boy then he was letting on. In all the time he had seen the boy, he had yet to see a trace of his own altered animagus form, not even the hybrid form that by the eldest sister's own admission was much more comfortable for the two. It was clear the boy was keeping a cautious step, it was evident in the boys every motion, he was not one to forget a potential threat.

The walkway shortly ended into a small oval opening into the cement slabs of a sidewalk, as the group exited the strange vortex and back into the mortal city of Amity. The street was glowing with a faint orange as the ever dwindling embers of twilight were subtly peeking from the horizon and the twin obfuscations of the faint mist and increasing clouds over head. The portal closed behind them as Albus stared at the building before them with a soft chuckle and an intrigued face.

Lawrence Lancer was correct; the word subtly could truly never describe the Fenton's.

The building itself was simple enough, a three stories tall red brick apartment, with a few windows here and there. What set it apart was, first, the green neon blaring sign that spelled "Fenton works" Laterally down next to the entrance, with a small arrow jetting from the bottom pointing to the door. And second, and most obvious being the enormous disk like structure that was precariously mounted to the top, covered in such strange muggle devices that he could only guess as to their function.

A quick turn of the head to his staff nearly had Albus in chuckles again. Minerva just stared on bewildered while poor Severus look as if wronged by fate, at least for a fraction of a second before forcefully bring out his indifferent frown. As if sensing Severus's discomfort (which Albus had a sneaking suspicion the boy could) Mr. Nightingale gave a small embarrassed laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

"hehe … yea, our parents aren't exactly the most… reserved of home owners, but still they …"

The boy stopped abruptly and turned his head to the home's front door. He brought his free hand from the back of his neck and to his face and said "Oh no" with a regretful sigh before squaring his shoulders and reaffirming his grip on his staff. Albus was about to inquire as to what troubled the boy before he felt a strange buildup of power behind the door. It was strange, powerful, yet stable, feeling almost … artificial. Just then the front door was kicked open as the lumbering form of Jack Fenton popped out with a resounding cry of "Ghost!"

In his hands he held a strange, silver gun like device. It had a glowing green neon trim and an assortment of flashing interfaces. The barrel of the device was massive; easily equaling the size of a grown man and from its maw was an intense glowing green of a building shot. Before Albus had any time to warn the Fenton Patriarch, a massive orb of green energy shot from barrel and speed towards the group. Just as he was about to erect a shield to guard the others, a faint buzz was heard, and in a quick flash of blueish white light, Mr. Nightingale appeared before him, hovering a few feet in the air with his feet spread and both hands on his staff. As the shot approached, the boy gave a quick sweep of his staff and batted the shot away, like an oversized bludger.

The shot arced high and far into the air, just a few meters above the roofline. The boy, while still deftly hovering in mid-air, brought his right hand into the air and leveled and open palm to the shot. He then clenched his fingers into a fist and immediately the ball of green energy exploded high above them. The resulting explosion of green created a small shockwave that slightly shook the ground around them. As the shaking subsided, the boy dropped down the few feet from where he was perched, with barely a tap as feet touched the ground.

Albus once again leveled the young teen an intrigued glance, as well as the man who seemed to just now realize what he was shooting at. Trigger happy tendencies aside, the power behind the weapon was astounding, so much so that he wasn't quite sure if he could shield everyone from the damage. Admittedly, even after seeing the couple's impressive technology, Albus wasn't too convinced of their status as hunters of the spectral; to think of muggles effectively staving off beings that challenged the best of magic seemed too farfetched. But if the doctors Fenton had weapons as powerful as that at their disposal, the idea seemed far, far more feasible. Then there was the boy, who again and again proved to be a growing enigma. One does not just flick away such power like it was child's play, and then just simply detonate it by whim.

Albus and the rest came up closer to the boy as he sent an incredulous frown towards his father. The giant in orange finally lowered his suits hood and gave the crowd a sheepish grin and a few embarrassed chuckles.

"Yea … sorry about that."

The man lowered his gun before outright dropping it into the air. Before the gun could even drop a few inches from the man's grasp, the device began to glow and dissipate into nothing before their very eyes. Albus felt his eyelids flash wide for just a fraction of a second before reigning in his face to a pleasant smile of intrigue. As much as he would love to inquire more about the Fenton's fascinating tools, they had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Didn't mean to startle you all like that!" Said Jack Fenton as he waved the group through the doorway "The Fenton finder just picked up a fairly large spike in ecto energy, and, well this dry season has left us a little… jumpy."

The Fenton father opened the door wider and with his typical exuberance and ushered them all into the strange abode. Despite the strangeness of the home's exterior, the interior was much more subdued. A simple blue carpet, a few pieces of furniture and appliances and just a few family photos paced around the modest living room. As the group settled into the simple room, Albus took note of the photos lining the walls. Some were of the family, some of the Fenton children along with Miss Mansion and Mister Foley, all with varying degrees of age. As he looked, he noted a strange consistency; all the children, including Miss Mansion and Mister Foley appeared in varying degrees of age, from infancy to their current age. All except the Young Danielle, who only seemed to appear in the photos that seemed a few years old. Now that was odd, but before he could investigate further, the Fenton Matriarch stepped out from the kitchen.

"Professors! Hello! Jack and I figured you'd be by soon, are you ready for us to take you back?"

The mother asked in as friendly tone as possible, she had her own hood down while holding a wooden stirring spoon. Time's warden then stepped forward and answered "Not yet I'm afraid, we'd actually like to discuss a few things with you and Jack."

The women turned her head to the time master a gave a small nodding bow and gave a large smile "oh Mr. Clockwork, I didn't see you there, sure, we'd love to talk, I'm just about finished with dinner, would you like to join us?" Albus wasn't sure whether to laugh or gasp, here was a veritable god amongst them and these two muggles treated him like an old family friend.

Before the time master could respond, Jack Fenton gave an excited grin as he rubbed his hands together and bellowed "that's great Mad's! Can't wait to eat, how about I give you a hand!" the couple walked back to the kitchen as the children gave each other a few worried glances. With trepidation, Jazmine stepped forward and gave a worried shout.

"Uh, mom, I know it's not exactly polite, but maybe we should go get take out or something."

Albus blinked as he gave another look at the children, nervousness radiated from each of them; as if anticipating a coming disaster, which left him confused. Surely Mrs. Fenton wasn't that terrible a cook, perhaps the Fenton parents had incorporated their spiritually empowered devices to … no, no, no that would be ludicrous. Just because the couple was fairly odd didn't mean they'd make anything too outlandish, they knew better than to cook with ectoplasm… right?

As if answering Albus's summons, a large crash came from the kitchen, and the Fenton parents came running from the doorway, guns in hand as they turned about face to the shambling monster that had followed them. It was a creature of brown and neon green sludge, with flakes of carrots, potatoes, peas, and chunks of beef swirling about its body. The top portion of the gelatinous monstrosity had a large enclave opening that served as the creature's mouth and two blood red spheres of light for its eyes. The creature gave an inhuman squeal as the family of hunters tore into the abomination, the couple with an assortment of strange spectral firearms, Miss Mansion and Mr. Nightingale with a flurry of black and green bolts of energy, and the Two Fenton daughters with twin blasts of fire, one from a wand and the other conjured from the palm.

The reanimated horror gave one last dyeing cry of pain as it was quickly being erased from existence, all while Albus himself stared dumbfounded at the oddity before him. As the assault stopped, the Amity locals dropped their respective weapons as Maddie Fenton turned to look around the group and gave a sheepish chuckle,

"So … does pizza sound good to anyone?"

Albus, who finally regained his wits started to give a few good natured laughs before giving a nod of affirmation.

" _Well"_ He thought, " _at least the order meetings won't be too boring, I'll just be sure Molly Weasley keeps them from the kitchen, though Sirius may intentionally let them cook if he gets wind of this."_

A cry of excitement came from both the young Mister Foley and Jack Fenton as the group as a whole began to calm themselves down from the strange encounter. Mister Foley and Jack Fenton followed the mother hunter back into the kitchen, followed by Minerva who had pick up a light hearted dialogue with her soon to be teaching assistant. Albus was about to follow when a strange presence pricked at the edge of his perception.

He turned and saw the three spirit masters all had moved to the closest window of the room, each looking out and to the sky and frowning with the time master just a few feet behind them, a neutral expression on his face.

Albus looked out himself and saw the increasing cloud cover had grown to a thick, black blanket of clouds that blocked the new night sky and loud clasps of thunder rolled within the new storm. Albus narrowed his eyes at the storm, focusing his senses as he took in the strange air he felt. This storm was clearly not natural, it held a weight and power that felt pervasive and wrong, which only increased as arcs of red lighting started to shine through the dark cloud cover.

Albus turned to his potions master; Severus stood there, eyeing the children with indifference as he looked between them. Each one of the spiritually empowered youths held a stern glare towards the darkened cloud cover, looking as if they wished for nothing more than the violent end to the cloud. Albus looked again to Severus and as the potions master's indifferent frown had grown to a border line scowl, he did even need legimancy to know the Slytherin head cursed the children's powerful mental shields. A loud sigh brought his attention back to the group as the Mister Nightingale turned to his master,

"Guess I can't hold off that talk with the fruit loop any longer huh?"

The time master's unreadable expression morphed into his typical smirk "you knew he wouldn't let you go before at least one last parting threat."

The boy's shoulders slumped as he gave an exasperated sigh

"I know … but a guy can dream can't he?"

The time master gave an amused snort as the boy turned to his younger sister. She and Miss Manson had turned from the window and now looked at the young man. Miss Manson had had a look of hard determination as she kept her arms folded and the grip on her staff firm. The youngest Fenton however was different, gone was her usual enthusiasm as she had descended from her floating to the floor below, showing herself to be a good couple of heads shorter than her tall brother. She tried to keep a determined frown, but the gesture was shaky at best as her head had slowly declined, her left arm crossed her stomach as her hand rubbed her right elbow, her tail slowly wrapping around her legs.

The boy gently brought his hand to her shoulder, knelt before the girl and gave a small shake to bring her face back to his,

"Dani ..." he said, in a soft kind voice, "why don't you stay here with everyone else, somebody has to keep tucker from eating my share of the pizza."

He lowered his Hand from her shoulder as the younger animagus gave a small chuckle to her brother's words, but still kept her head lowered and shook it back and forth, opening her mouth to give a rebuttal before another hand landed on her other shoulder, this time from Miss Manson, who gave a small sweet smile and said,

"You don't have to go if you don't want to Dani."

She too knelt down before the girl, moving her hand from her shoulder to push one of the girl's stray bangs from her eyes before continuing "Nobody would ever think less of you for it, nobody has the right to think less of you." She dropped her hand as the young animagus gave a few sniffs as a few tears dotted her eyes, before gave a quick rub of her eyes and gave both teenagers a beaming smile. The whole exchange, Albus and his companion hadn't said a word, carefully observing the conversation and feeling slightly confused.

It was clear whatever the source of the strange storm was not only known to them, but none too welcome. He contemplated what this could mean and based on what he'd seen so far, it seemed to him to involve one of the town's local spirits. He hadn't the ability to discern a spiritually based power so far, at least not with the precision that the boy had shown, but he could pick up the small disruptions in the field around him, and from what he could discern from the storm, this anomaly had a familiar spectral feel about it. Curious, but most likely unrelated to the looming threat they faced, still, it never hurts to be cautious.

The youngest Fenton gave a quick "thanks" and enveloped her brother and Miss Manson in a quick hug before leaping back into the air and darted straight for the kitchen. The two teenagers stood up and smirked at each other before Mister Nightingale's turned into a small frown and shouted "Dani! Make sure not to eat too much ok?!" a loud and clearly distracted affirmation came from the girl in the kitchen as her brother just shook his head.

The two teenagers turned towards each other again with a regained serious air. The boy seemed to be building his resolve to say something to his female counterpart, taking a quick breath and said in a pleading voice,

"Sam …"

The girl seemed unamused and set into a deeper frown before she folded her arms, narrowed her eyes and firmly grasped her staff before a small dark green and black film colored her silhouette and her eyes flashed a deep green.

"I might be wrong, Daniel James Nightingale…" she said in an even, seemingly calm voice that radiated bloodlust "… But I could swear you were about to ask me to stay behind."

Her words seemed to become increasingly sharp as she took a step towards the boy, who backed off a step in turn; a cold sweat broke off the boy's brow and Albus didn't even need to see his eyes behind the blindfold to tell the look of panic they held.

The Girl's dark frown morphed into a large smile as she closed her eyes that, despite looking much kinder than her earlier expression, held the same threat of harm to her victim.

"But you wouldn't say that, right Danny?" She asked in light, sweet tone as the boy gulped down his nerves. He gave a couple shaky chuckles before responding,

"o-of course not, never even crossed my mind." The poor Nightingale heir brought both hands up, one still holding his staff, to placate the girl as Albus forced himself not to even chuckle, if only to help the boy save face. Miss Manson's eyes opened as her terror inducing grin morphed into a true smile and said "great, open up a portal and let's go talk down the cheese head."

The boy gave a relieved sigh before turning to face Albus and Severus, apparently the boy had not forgotten them in his panic.

"I'm sorry professors, but Sam and I need to go, there's an … acquaintance here in town that we need speak to before we leave."

Albus cocked an eye before running his fingers through his long beard; he had figured there was a third party involved, the only question was who. He was curious, but if the source truly was just another facet of the town's spiritual strangeness, then it had little relevance to his visit. So instead of asking who, he asked.

"Will this acquaintance be a hindrance to these proceedings?" As long as the entity was no threat to the war effort, Albus was content to let sleeping ghosts lie. The boy frowned in thought and annoyance,

"I don't think so, I doubt he's done anything to involve himself in this mess, but I'd still like to make sure."

Albus gave the youth a quick, appreciated nod before responding "Then by all means proceed, in truth, I have no power over your dealings until those transfer documents are signed, would you like me to inform your parents of your departure?"

The boy shook his head "no need, Danielle will have given them the run down before long, thanks though."

Albus and the boy shared a quick nod in confirmation before the youth raised his free hand and summoned another portal to his and Miss Manson's right. Just as the two were about to leave, the time master spoke up from behind them, Still standing just behind the children.

"Remember Danny that a master of the game doesn't win by a crushing victory,"

The boy stopped to contemplate the spirit's words, looking upon his master's face that while looked neutral, held a solemn tone of forebodence.

"He traps his opponent by tricking them into what they think is an easy triumph, turning swift victory into crushing defeat."

The spirit gave a short pause, before continuing "remember, beware the honey words of the cornered snake, for a venomous creature does not drop its guard without reason."

The boy turned his head down for a small second to think before giving his master a determined nod. The boy turned back to his portal as he and Miss Manson stepped through, disappearing in the swirls of green and black as the gate disappeared behind them.

(~)

He had to admit, the boy truly did have an eye for location; the view was simply breathtaking.

Several thousands of feet in the air, in the center of a large, black pillar of tumultuous cloud stood a sharply dressed man, who was defiantly ignoring gravity as he looked above the night sky to view a gorgeous display of star light.

He wore a large black, business dress overcoat that draped across him like a kingly robe. The Coat was obviously expensive, made only from the finest of materials, with a large pen pocket over the left breast, stuffed with a dazzling, moniker silk cloth neatly folded and tucked. The buttons were each ivory white and richly engraved in a golden V and white ivory, with a gilded gold engraved pair of cuffs on the coats wrists. The coat was left unbuttoned and flowed open, revealing a while silk interior lining.

under the expensive coat was an equally expensive black business suit that also had white Ivory buttons and another silk cloth tucked into the breast pocket, only this time with a masterfully gilded gold pocket watch and chain the ran from the pocket tied to the upper button of the suit and ended with a gilded gold and embroidered gold plate with his stylized V in the middle.

Visible from above the collar line of the suit was a black button shirt with similar white ivory buttons, and at the collar was a simple white silk band wrapped underneath the folded collar. Below he wore a matching pair of business appropriate suit pants and an expensive black leather belt with a plain silver buckle. On his feet were black silk dress socks with an expensive pair of well shined black leather dress shoes.

The man himself was fairly well aged, within his mid-forties, but looked no older than his early thirties with a long face that held no blemish or scar. The only features that hinted his true age where the seemingly ever present dark rings underneath his eyelids and his long, straight, pure gray hair, tied into a long pony-tail for convenience sake(It seemed an unfortunate curse of his kind to forever deal with such long hair, at least his wasn't like the boys and was tamable.)His eyes were a clouded blue and on his chin was a notably large white goatee. He was fairly tall, with broad shoulders the carried an authoritative air, but was at the same time thin, toned by practice instead of genetics.

On his hands were black leather gloves that at first glance would seem of just a simple expensive design, except for the central circles on the back of the hands. The runic circles were lined in silver embroidery and looked to be written in some ancient, long forgotten language. In the center of both gloves were 2 red triangle shaped jewels, each side tapered on their sides like a cut gem except for one sold straight face on each side that. If you brought both gems together, it would show that they were once one whole square shaped gem that was cut straight down the middle. The gloved hands were clasped behind the man in question as he had his head tilted up to the night sky.

Vladimir Masters was usually not one to star gaze, his skills and passion were earthbound, simply looking from above down to govern and rule the small creatures that scurried beneath him. This coming game however, could not be played from his usually preferred high ground; he had to approach this on a level playing field, or in this case, the rightful stage for beings of their power. So for once he would wait, for any other the thought of such consolidation was insulting; he was Vlad Masters, he didn't wait on others behalf, others waited for him and his decrees, to show just who held the rightful imperative. If it were any other, he would simply demand they should be as fortunate as to be recognized by him, but this was no corporate stooge or some bumbling spirit binder; this was one was worth his time and so much more. So he would wait, looking below his feet for a few seconds he was sure the boy had received his summons and would no doubt be here shortly. Looked up again at the unhindered few of the starry night sky with a small smirk and narrowed eyes he decided he could indulge in a little stargazing for once; after all, his little badger loved to star gaze himself.

A silent sigh left the man's lips as withheld the heavenly view, from his few probes he sent to spy on the boy (before he gained his insufferably advanced sense of sight.) Vlad had garnered a few choice murmurings from the brooding teen. Apparently young Daniel used this spot to reflect, strange for a boy of his age but then again he supposed the boy deserved a few moments of introspection. He knew all too well the strange transition to suddenly change species, and the boys altered animagus form wasn't of much help in that regard. It may have been a few years since the boy's collision with fate, but it took more than time to mend these scars. Another sigh left his lips as his sinister smirk softened; it seemed this spot offered too good a chance to reflect to pass up.

Vladimir Masters had what some would call a … unusual upbringing, being a part of one of the few remaining isolated pure blooded families left in America. Their attitude was to be expected, proud, proper, and absolutely intolerable. They demanded perfection, poise, and the magical talent to supply the affirmation to their own biased opinion. That was his life, to be always properly groomed, to always affirm and self-affirm their apparent superiority, and to be of the unquestionable elite in the pursuit of greater magic's. And like a passing calamity, it all fell apart his eleventh birthday, when his was discovered to be a squib. It honestly wasn't that great a shock, his magical ability had always been quite dismal, but his parents and elders had always said that he would grow into his abilities, he had to, he was a Masters. But when he had become old enough to be tested, the results showed he had only the tiniest of magic; that was the definitive last straw that broke the camel's back. Like that, he was all but thrown from his home, given to a family of loyal servants and was banished from the grounds of what would have been his rightful estate.

All of those years, training him to be the head of the family, preparing him to be on top of the magical world stage, telling him again and again of his obvious superiority over others, pointless. And for what, not meeting a basic standard, for being too like the muggles? What made those pompous fools of his family think that they were so superior, their magic? He seen the magic of the "lesser" family servants, the ones one kept a strong tie to the muggle countrymen, and there was hardly a discrepancy. Sure, the power and resources of his family meant the children had a leg up in terms of a quality magical education, but that meant nothing in the long run, a little hard work of a determined youth could have these so called lesser witches and wizards greatly outshine any fool with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Resentment and bitterness swelled in the young Vlad, the betrayal of his family taught him something very important, true power comes from more than just a claim.

His new guardians were kind enough, they weren't heavenly but he could hardly complain considering they took him in. He was registered into a local muggle school, seeing as he couldn't attend any magical institutions, and was given a structured tutoring program to help him catch-up with his peers. It wasn't long however until he greatly outshined his classmates of course, estranged or not he was taught to be the best, and that's exactly what he would be. He also kept up with his magical studies, reading the old hand me down textbooks the older kids of the family had finished; Squib or not, he wasn't going to let his family's opinion define what he did.

So the years passed, as Vlad grew more and more cultured to the muggle way of life, adapting to the trends of the times and spiking and dyeing his hair, continuing in his studies into college and reveling in the life his elders would have abhorred. It was there at Amity University that he meet his destiny, in the form of beautiful woman and an over eager oaf. He was struck the second he laid eyes on her, her perfect form, her perfect hair, her perfect smile, everything about her sung perfection. Then there was Jack, the fool, he honestly couldn't see how he could have stood the buffoon, much less actually form a friendship with the idiot, but then again everyone was entitled to a few follies of youth, doubly so if the result produces such miracles.

He'd never thank Jack for his accident, the long months he spent in agony as the ectoplasm simmered and burned to take root, but all of that torture was worth the rewards. The revelation of his form was a shock, but the power it afforded him was far too much, even more so when he had accidentally casted his first true spell. It was an accident; he had gone to the local magic's market to find any information on spirits that might help him further develop his powers. A passing wizard had dropped his wand and being nothing if not polite, Vlad had grabbed the tool to give it back to its owner. Imagine his surprise when he had carelessly gave the wand a wave and a nearby stand of potion ingredients was blown to pieces. He hadn't even heard the wizard's outcry to careful with his wand waving, he was too focused on his hand to even hear the world around him.

He approached his new found magic as he did everything in his life, with quick and ruthless efficiency, in just a few short years of becoming a halfa; he had his magical and spiritual abilities at their peak, and ready to return to his ancestral home.

A dark smirk reappeared on his lips at the thought of his return, the outcry, the shock, and most satisfying of all … the fear. He'd never tell Daniel of that night, he'd never tell a soul, it was a personal memory, one for his own happy reminiscing.

Come morning, all that was known was the lost heir of the masters had come home after "terrible tragedy," to take ahold of his birthright. With his past behind him and a couple well planned "business" dealings lining his pockets, Vlad Masters was set to make his mark on the world. All he needed now was the love of his life, but fate it seems truly was a master of irony, for as he built his empire, he unwittily allowed the cursed fool who branded him to take his love.

They had reached out many times to reconnect, and despite the perfect opportunity to remove the oaf, he never responded, the sight of them happily together would be too painful for him to bear. With his beloved out of his reach, for the time being, Vlad charged forward to secure his empire. From petty theft to crushing commercial giants, from simple displays of ghostly power to forcing spectral kingdoms to bow before him, Vlad made sure that both realms knew and feared the name Masters. But over the years, as he built his empire outward, he toiled inward.

As the years passed, the solitude of his high position began to weigh heavily upon him. He felt isolated, singular in purpose and being, the only one of his kind. After a little more than a decade he decided to extend an ear to his old candle, to see how their little family was doing. No sooner had he found their address did the news explode in the magical community. The coven of Chronos taking ahold of Amity; the discovery of the Fenton's work and most shocking of all to him, the children's magic. To think the oaf's lineage held such astounding importance; well, perhaps it was time to "reconnect" with his old college friend after all these years.

He had sent a few simple tests at first, nameless ghouls with barely the ability to think beyond attacking the nearest moving object, a few stray fledgling apparitions, nothing serious, but was surprised at the results. Not of their failure, he had assumed with Maddie's brilliance, the oaf had more than enough equipment to repel these simple attempts, and if not, the local coven would be enough to minimize the damage. No what startled him were the reports of the young spirit that bore the covens mark. Vlad was no uninformed fool; he had spent enough time in the upper echelons of the zones political power to know who headed the Coven of Chronos, so a spirit of the level of an apparition or greater in their employ was not so startling, but even so, a spirit of such power willingly protecting self-proclaimed ghost hunters made no sense. Not only that, but the spirits apparent age and human like appearance were clearly disproportionate with its power confounded him. Clearly, this couldn't be done from afar, so Vlad decided it was time to confront his greatest love and most hated individual face to face. After all, he had planned to reclaim his beloved eventually, why wait? And it would give him time to evaluate the children, and see if they took enough of their mother to be spared. He couldn't come to them, not without some preparation against the time master's lackeys, so he had the family come to him, with a simple gathering for their college reunion.

And it was there he met Daniel, and the wheels of fate turned again.

Finally, after all this time another halfa, another of his kind; not only that, but a halfa son from his beloved Maddie; even after his rejection, those two facts alone made his spirits soar. It didn't matter that the boy was also Jack's son, it didn't matter that he clearly took too much from his father's side, the opportunity … no, the fact that he would soon have his beloved in his hands and a son to raise as his own washed all negatives aside and strengthened his resolve, he would have his heir and his love, no matter what.

A small spark of red charge colored his vision for a fraction of a second, easily suppressed so that any passer by wouldn't have noticed a thing, but to Vlad, it meant his guest had arrived.

Oh, make that guests as the clear signature of the third half reached his senses; obviously Miss Mansion couldn't be persuaded to simply sit on the side and wait. Vlad was rather torn about the girl; initially, she was a bad influence on his little badger, always helping to keep the boy as far from Vlad as she could. She was his support, a great pillar of strength for Daniel, and while he had contemplated undermining or flat out destroying that support to gain a step closer, he never could risk it. For starters, that accursed time master was still an ever present problem, and while his nature as time's caretaker limited the elder spirit, Vlad's own hybrid status left him in a sort of exploitable loophole for the time master. And to be honest, Vlad wasn't sure he could do that to his little badger; He would of certainly go to extreme means to realize both his and the boys destiny, but he couldn't help but feel a measure of sympathy for the boy, seeing as he was once in his very shoes.

And then the girl did the unimaginable and became a halfa herself, filled with a fel core and elemental power beyond any traditional magical means. As distressing as it was to have such a powerful entity now actively undermining his work, he couldn't lie how elated he felt at the increasing number of their emerging race. Even that failure of a clone that Daniel continued to shelter brought a smile to his face, and then a frown, thinking of the madness emerging an ocean away. He might have liked the idea of an increase in halfas, but the madman in Britain would bring far, far more problems than needed. With his thoughts back on business, Vlad opened his eyes, looking out into the horizon. A small chuckle escaped his lips,

"We're never going to get anywhere with you just staring a hole into my back Daniel."

"Then say what you want if you want to leave so soon."

A calm, neutral rebuttal came a few meters behind him; to anyone else, it would seem uninterested, but Vlad could hear the angry bite of the boy's tone; after all, he helped sharpen those words. He turned around and behind him stood/floated Daniel Nightingale, in human form with his right arm keeping his staff vertical and his left placed firmly at his side. Behind him stood Samantha Mansion, also in human form and with her arms crossed her staff in her right hand as well. The girl's face was the textbook example of loathing, and all of it pointed at him, whereas Daniel's was the perfect example of neutral. Before, when he was just a child, Daniel was quite expressive about his distaste for Vlad's machinations, but now the boy had been well trained. Anger, while a boost to a certain degree, left one mentally vulnerable, as did any emotion; facial expressions where key into reading a person's mood, and based on what they projected, one could do a lot with that information; especially, as the boy had learned, for someone as well trained as Vlad. So the boy had learned to school himself, (so had the girl, but she knew she wasn't of tonight's focus, so could afford such a display of animosity) Learning how to suppress his emotional displays so as not to give Vlad more ammo to use against him.

The sight of such a well-trained display had him look closer at the boy and in doing so, he always had to himself suppress the urge to sigh in reminiscence. When he had met Daniel at his college reunion those years ago, the boy was barely even 9 years old, and hardly even came to the man's waist in height. Now here he was, a little more than a month away from his fifteenth birthday and was just a head shy of his own height. His little badger had grown on him, gone was the bumbling inexperienced young spirit, and in his place was a hardened hunter. He successfully suppressed the urge to sigh as his smirk grew,

"Now Daniel, where have your manners gone?" He asked in a mocking tone as he leaned forward ever so slightly and paced around the boy, as if he was reprimanding a small child, "It's quite rude to arrive unannounced and expect the host to be so accommodating."

The boy kept his head tracked on Vlad's movements, to make sure he could see his neutral face as often as possible, a sign that the boy wasn't going to hide from him, and responded "and here I could have sworn you once said that there was no need for formalities between us."

So the boy was throwing his words from a previous encounter back at his face, funny. A dark chuckle purred from Vlad's throat as he came full circle in his pacing and turned to fully face the boy.

"Then I suppose …" Vlad began, his arms dropped from his back as his eyes flashed red "… there's no need for disguises as well."

A black ring of energy popped into existence around Vlad's midsection, before splitting as they traveled up and down his person, changing the man into his ghost form.

In this form, he wore a white, eighteenth century imperial overcoat, with a matching waist coat, covered in gilded glowing silver and black fabric. The Buttons of both pieces of clothing were of a black ivory, moniker by an italicized P. around his waist was a black, silver embroidered cloth belt with a matching pair of white cloth pants.

His glove catalysts had changed with him, turning from simple leather gloves to large, thick black leather gauntlets that reached past half of his fore arm. A matching pair of black leather boots adorned his feet, each a few inches away from his shins.

Draped over his shoulders was a long, flowing white and black embroidered cape, trimmed in a woven black tassels and lined with the inside being a deep crimson red pattern that looked as if constructed by a tightly packed assembly of crimson feathers. The cape was clasped in place by black leather and silver embroidered shoulder pads, which were trimmed in small, crimson red feathers.

The collar of the waist coat was turned high and rested past his partly exposed Adam's apple, leaving the rest of his head exposed. What was once a pale white complexion was now sickly blue skin, with ebony black hair replacing his aged silver. The hair was slicked back; becoming a flowing black river that ended a half a foot past the back of his neck, save for a few stray tussles that spiked up from the back of his head.

From the corners of his forehead where 2 black horns that swept outward and backward about half a foot, looking very demonic. His teeth began to sharpen as his ears grew upwards into a sharp point. The Scylla of eyes turned black as pupils silted, his irises becoming a deep crimson. An ethereal wind caused his cape to billow as his being gave a soft glow; a growing film of deep crimson pulsed around his frame. With a now fanged smirk, he stood before the boy before gesturing toward him with a quick upturned hand.

"Now that I've gotten more comfortable, how about you two follow suite."

The boy's expression remained stoic, but Vlad could feel the animosity behind those covered eyes as if the boy was trying to set him ablaze with a stare. He felt pride well within him, every interaction the boy; from a simple chat to the occasional brawl he could see the growth in the youth. He may not yet be his son, that wretched time master held too close a hold on the boy, but Vlad nearly sang with joy as he saw more and more of himself in young Daniel with every passing encounter. Doubly pleasing was the fact that Daniel saw it too, much to the boy's annoyance and Vlad's, adamantly childish glee.

Without even so much as flinching, a white halo of light popped into existence around the boy. Like Vlad, the ring of light split in half and traveled the length of the boy's body, revealing his ghost form.

When the boy was first turned, he found himself dressed in the inverted jumpsuit as his base dress in his ghost form. But over time and training, the boy's mastery of his powers reflected in the altered clothing of his current state. On his chest was a pure white, hooded robe, the length of which matched the overcoat of his human form, but lacking the assortment of buttons that lined the seam. The robe was made of an odd, otherworldly material, looking almost organic and hugged the boys frame like another skin.

His sleeves where merged with white, skin tight gloves of the same material as the rest of the garment. Each glove had a black diamond pattern printed on the back of the hands. The underside of both the fore arm and hand of the glove were also covered in pure black that stretched into elongated triangles at the elbows and finger tips.

The robe was closed around the boy's torso; a section of two inch wide black trim ran from the lining of his hood and down to a liquid metal belt around his waist. The belt was of the boys own creation, along with the helping hand of his tech specialist friend, incorporating some of the more useful features that Fenton works had to offer (no doubt by his beloved Maddie's hands.) The lower section of the robe flowed freely from the belt into 5 large segments, each ending in triangular points and each lined with the continuous black trim. Said black trim was engraved in a long, looping line of arcane runes that glowed powerful green.

The inner lining of the robe was usually pure black, but would, like the black section of cloth of his palms, bleed a Fel green whenever the boy lost his temper. On his legs the boy wore large, loose black pants that would typically blend perfectly into the black of the robe, making it appear as if the boy had no upper legs. On his feet were pure white boots of similar composition as the strange robe, which stretched up past the boy's knees where the child's pants were securely pulled in. It created a strange effect, the black of the robes causing the white to visibly pop out, as if the boys lower legs were disconnected from the rest of his body.

On the robes back was a large black diamond that held line after line of green glowing runes and an assortment of black streaks that radiated from the diamond outward along the white surface of the robe. They looked tribal by nature and while they didn't cover much of the white of the robe, only cover roughly thirty percent in total, evenly spread across the whole surface of the cloth and would, like the other sections of black, bleed fel green.

The boy's hood was usually up, which would cause an interesting effect of shading the upper section of the boy's face, showing only the boy's mouth and lower jaw, excluding two glowing green eyes.

But the boy willing chose to summon the hood down, showing his face in ghost form. Again, when the boy first turned, not much of his person changed from his human form, but again, as he gained more power his ghost form had reflected his growth. Whereas before, the boy's skin had darkened only slight degree, barely noticeable from his usually complexion, now the boy's skin had darken far more, looking more foreign than his parentage would suggest (perhaps the family had a distant relation that was brought to the surface by the boys change, something to check later.) The rest of his face however, reflected more of his more ectoplasmic nature.

Like Vlad, the boy's ears had elongated, even when he suppressed his animagus form, but whereas Vlad's had pointed upwards, not unlike that of a bat, the boy's blasted backwards and out, like that of a typical fantasy elf. His teeth had changed as well, becoming sharper, looking more menacing, giving the boys occasional grin in this form a slightly disturbing quality, something he knew the boy hated. His eyes had as well changed, Black Sclera with glowing green irises and silted pupils, but the boy had no cover for them in this form, after all, what would be the point? Over his eyes and lining his neck and lower jaw were streaks of black and green tribal marks, similar to those of the boy's robes, which continued downwards and covered the boy's body. While they looked not unlike tattoos, they were in fact developed naturally, a sign of the raw fel power that coursed through his body.

As always the boy's hair was a pure white, bound by a black cloth and held in a similar style as his human form but whereas before in simply changed color, now it softly glowed a pure white, and seemed to ebb and flow, like a stationary flame. As it moved by both the energy of its form and the wind around them, Vlad could garner a glimpse in-between the boy's forward bangs and see the fruits of a more lamentable venture. On the boy's forehead was a small line of crystal blue ice that jetted out ever so slightly in small, horn like points, with the ends of each crystal seemingly giving off a soft white glow.

This was what had become of the crown of fire; now known as the crown of ice, which like the ring had changed as soon as it came into Daniel's possession, becoming bound to his ghost form. Right now the crown was willing being suppressed by the boy, poking just ever so slightly out from his forehead. With just a little concentration, he knew the boy could bring it out in full and while it wouldn't match the power gained from both the ring and the crown in tandem, it still would give the boy a tremendous boost. Speaking of the ring, it still laid strung on the chain around the boy's neck, just under his outfit, not once in the few years the boy had the ring did he see reason to activate both.

While comforting that the boy wouldn't outright use his newfound power on Vlad, it still lingered as an ever present threat. Still, Vlad was as always ever crafty, and knew just why the boy never wore the two marks of the throne. Because it would be just what Vlad himself would do, to use all that power for his own ends, regardless of what some other fools would say. Ironically, the power to destroy him became the perfect tool to exploit, reminding the boy just how easy it would be to unleash that power, how _satisfying_ it was to forcefully contort things to one's favor, just how close a step he was from filling Vlad's own shoes. He had to be careful in pushing the boy, but Vlad was nothing if not careful, and with every whisper of temptation, he saw more and more his words hit their mark.

The Final article of change was the boy's staff, it had elongated by a little over a foot, and green runes blazing into life lined the black wood of the staff. The bottom interwoven end of the staff had threaded open with a plume of pure Fel energy spewing forth from the bottom, like a small blade (as was its purpose). The top weave around the crystal had also changed, the weave extending into two large slits in opposite sides of the staff with the now brightly glowing green crystal stationed evenly in the middle of these two new openings. From the crystal spewed forth two large channels of pure Fel energy, one stretching just a foot and a half from the back of the staff, and the other a good three feet, each channel of energy held a slight curve in the flow of green and black, indicating the staff had become a scythe.

The rings had finally run their course, and there stood his little badger with the same indifferent and cold stare fixed solely on Vlad. Yet despite the change, the boy had yet to bring out even a trace of his animagus in front of him. Any discomfort the boy felt in suppressing the form while human was doubly so in ghost, but the boy was defiantly not showing him a hint of his altered form. One would think this just an act of defiance, but Vlad knew better, the boy was deliberately trying to meeting him on equal ground, both the boy and Miss Manson knew Vlad had his own form to suppress. Miss Mansion had as well finished her transformation; with her own more evident glare not moving an inch.

"There!" She said, arms still firmly folded and with more force and strength than was strictly needed for him to hear "We've all gotten casual; start talking, we have school plans to prepare."

Vlad quirked an amused eyebrow and turned his head to the girl; not even going to entertain the thought that he didn't know about that hm? He turned his head back to the boy and saw no trace of regret at the young woman's remark; it seems both know better than to assume he didn't already know. He once again placed his hands behind his back and began to pace around the boy, a sign of how little has changed, even in these forms.

"Very well then, I suppose we should get to the meat of things before any pleasantries."

He continued to pace as he watched the boy, considering his next gamble. He had to be careful in this game, had had once too often underestimated his little badger and had paid the price, but tonight would be the night he sowed the seeds to his future plans, he had to, before the boy was whisked away to fight another's war. Not that he would stop the boy, to be honest the sooner this oversea farce was rectified, the quicker his plans would proceed, but his lack of involvement in the matter wouldn't prevent Vlad from make a profit.

"I take it the two of you have at least an acceptable grasp of the situation at hand?" He said, and upturned hand gesturing between the two. They gave no response for no response was necessary, and only after he gave an affirmative nod did the boy speak up,

"I just have just one thing to say Plasmius," the boy's words were cold and sharp, spoken with what some would call monotone if not for the undercurrent of seething resentment.

Vlad in response gave "tsk, tsk" before addressing the boy in an obviously faked hurt tone, "Daniel, you can't honestly believe I would have a hand in bringing that mad man back do you?"

They boys face didn't so much as twitch as he gave his response "No, but I know you well enough to know you won't leave this to us, you're too much of an opportunist shark to pass that up."

A pleased smirk crossed Vlad's face at the boys back handed insult, showing he was more pleased than angered, and though the boy gave no facial response, the ever so soft glow of green in the black of the boys clothing mixed with the ever so slight drop the heat of the surrounding air was response enough. The boy continued,

"So I'll just tell you this now, back off."

The tone was just as cold, but the force behind those words could send chills without an actual drop in temperature. Vlad's smirk grew as he inched closer to the boy.

"My my Daniel, quite the commanding voice you have there, I'd dare say you could stop even Skulker cold with the ice in that voice."

The boy gave no response as Vlad continued his pace, slowly circling closer by the word, each word morphing his voice into sweet honey.

"And why not, after all, what threat am I now? You have the crown and ring, and with your mastery of fel and ice, I can hardly compare."

Not entirely true, while the boy's raw power did exceeded his own, his years of experience and training to purposely oppose greater fel powers gave him a great edge in battle, but he needed more than just power for this opponent.

Vlad continued to pace, grow ever so closer, not unlike a viper circling its prey. He continued to speak to the boy, his voice easily melding to an authentic plea of remorse, seeming like an earnest reflection of misgivings, adding more honey for the trap.

"Honestly, why should I even stand in your way? Not just in this upcoming conflict, but at all? I have been the only one of my kind for far too long." A soft sigh exited his lips as he was just a foot behind the boy, facing perpendicular to the boy with his arms behind his back.

"And now Here I am, with two of the only ones who understand my plight and already I've made enemies out of the both of them."

He turned to the girl, then to the boy, showing the softest, most genuine smile he could, to seem as authentic in his approach as possible.

"Perhaps …" he said, raising his hand and reaching for the boy's shoulder "… it's time to stop trying to force a win."

The boy didn't respond, neither did the girl, it seems his words had struck their targets, now it was time to seal the deal as his hand approached the boy's shoulder … to immediately retch it away as a soft, blue while film encircled Young Daniels frame. Vlad wasn't fast enough as a small portion of his lower glove and a small bit of his cape had passed through the white film and shredded into oblivion upon contact, leaving a noticeable hole in his glove and a trimmed off corner of his cape.

The soft blue white glow was a very tricky technique of the boy's cryokinetic abilities, taught to him by those insufferable abominable snow freaks of the far frozen. The film itself looked more like a frosty mist emanating from the boy, with just a touch more color than being completely see-through. But instead of cool water particles, this mist was in fact trillions of tiny, microscopic ice crystals, each consisting of four sharp, curved blades. The boy could manipulate them as he saw fit, usually keeping them constantly spinning at ridiculous speeds and each, being made of spiritually crafted ice, where ludicrously dense, making a cloud of countless, invisible sawblades. The boy could coat himself and objects in a film of them to make an untouchable coat of armor, or shot of a few of these blades to make nearly invisible projectiles that could practically slice through anything. The boy could even augment his defense further by stopping the blades rotations and interlinking their curved edges to create a form of icy chainmail that could form not only around him, but in the air around him as well. The many possibilities of this technique mixed with the boy's now extraordinary extended sight created a near invincible defense, in more than one way it seems.

Vlad had back stepped a few feet from the boy, who gave no response to any of this, his smirk dropped into a neutral frown. Wordlessly he brought his hand out with his cape to inspect the damages, and with a little concentration and a flash of crimson, the damages to his glove and cape were mended in an instant. The film of blue white mist died around the boy as he spoke without even turning around,

"… maybe it would be time to surrender the game if you didn't so obvious want to continue playing."

Vlad gave no response; he simply looked at the boy, calmly watching him in silence. Finally, after a few moments the boy turned his head ever so slightly and said "I meant what I said, you should just back off, not even the observants want to get involved in this, their leaving us with all the hard work with barely their usual amount of nagging."

Vlad still gave no response, giving his own neutral frown as the boy turned his head to once again face forward. "I know you want to make a profit Vlad, but if anything in what you just said held even a shred of truth, you'll stay away…"

The boy turned around completely and walked straight past Vlad, saying softly as he passed,

"It isn't worth it."

Vlad still gave no response, not as the boy passed, not as he opened a rift for both him and his friend, not as they both changed back before entering, not even when the rift closed behind him.

A few seconds past before finally, Vlad lifted his palm up and inspected it.

"Not worth it hm …"

He said, amusement dancing on his voice. The boy may have once again refused, but the seeds have been sowed. They may not have been ready to take root now, but Vlad had time and time again proven to be a very patient man, and eventually those seeds would bear fruit. A smirk grew on his lips as he clenched his fingers into a tight fist,

"You may be right my dear boy…" He said, a dark chuckle growing from his throat,

"But you will be worth far more than the cost."

(~)

 **Ok, A LOT I wanna talk about here, again, sorry about the long wait, gonna try and get these out sooner, first up …**

 **Dumbledore's head his getting crowded-**

 **I honestly didn't mean to use Dumbledore's perspective as often as I have so far, but it's just to easy to do so. At this point, Danny and co. are too well informed of the going on's that that trying to write in their perspective would essentially be a lot of them describing what they already know, which is unavoidable, but something I should really limit. In this regard, Dumbledore is perfect, he's observant enough to pick up other character's emotional states as well as not knowing enough so that the story naturally develops with him. When they gang get to London, then I'll most likely start giving Danny and the others more time for a perspective shift, but for now, Dumbledore is the perfect vehicle.**

 **Danny and Sam's relationship with Danielle-**

 **Ok, I'm going to state this out flat here, "I AM NOT DOING A REVEALED PARRENTAGE THING WITH THESE THREE" so there won't be a jerry springer with a paternity test, 'you're the father/mother' between these three. It's not to say I don't like the Danny Sam official parent of Dannielle angle, It's just not what I want to do. I do want to reveal exactly what I plan with this, I want that to be more evident in the story, but for now, no official Dad Danny Mommy Sam subplot.**

 **Vlad's redesign-**

 **Not much here, I just thought of how not make Vlad look like he's trying to be more regal. The whole "hidden form" thing I was alluding to? Well, read and wait to find out (evil chuckle). Finally, no hair horns, sorry, but there is no way I can make that look intimidating.**

 **Danny's ghost form redesign-**

 **I think we all kind of have an idea of what a cool new look for Danny's ghost form would look like, for me, this is kind of the closest I can get to having that expressed without drawing it myself, cuz I'm a crappy artist.**

 **Vlad's backstory-**

 **My thought process with this was simple, what would make a villain like Vlad? Whenever I saw the character in the show, I always saw him as both acting as what he felt was just proper, as well as trying to show his importance, showing an odd mixture of self-importance with what I could only see as a massive inferiority complex. It was like he was radiating sociopathic assurance while at the same time trying to enforce his confidence. I thought of what could make a character like that and this is, in my opinion, as good a means to such a character in the harry potter universe can allow.**

 **Once again I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, pls post a comment, I'd love to hear how you feel I should improve the story, thx!**


	5. CH 4- Time's Old Friend

**FINALLY GOT THIS OUT! Sorry about the wait guys, started school, bowels got destroyed,**

 **BUT I FIANALLY GOT THIS OUT!**

 **So I finally stopped getting massive stomach aches whenever I write, still not sure why I did in the first place, but I've finally got back into writing my chapters, with more hopefully being released at a more regular pace.**

 **On that front, for those who read my Bleach crossover, I've made a lot of headway on that to, I'm like 7000 words into that, so it will be out soon, not sure when, but soon.**

 **Also, as you might have seen, I'm tired of alice and wonderland titles**

 **As always, I do not own Harry potter or Danny phantom, I just a fan.**

(~)

 **Chapter 4-** _ **A messege from Time's old friend**_

All wisdom, all experience, all prior preconceptions left Albus as he stood before the swirling vortex of green and black.

(~)

The following evening was an interesting one, after sitting down at the Fenton family dining table and having had a taste of that strange American muggle incarnation of pizza (a tad too greasy for his tastes, but he supposed it was more a local choice,) He and his fellow professors finally came to business and talked to the Doctors Fenton. After explaining the situation, and after a few confirmations by the time master himself, the two strange muggles pledged their full support to the order. With a grateful smile, Albus inquired as to the soonest time the family could prepare to "make the jump across the pond" as the old saying goes. The couple surprised him again by claiming they'd be up and ready to leave by the next morning. Now that stumped Albus, surely the couple had a great many delicate and vital instruments to store away, so he questioned them in how they could achieve such speed.

Their answer was nothing less than astounding, according to Jack Fenton, they had made several breakthroughs in utilizing some of the more unique properties in ectoplasm; notably in this case in regards to its effect in spatial relations. Such work had yielded in a variety of extraordinary devices and systems designed to store a near infinite number of items. It was these systems that allowed the couple to hold an entire arsenal of weaponry on their person, to be summoned by whim, and store a menagerie of tools and equipment to use in any circumstances.

They could even store a number of larger objects, such as the couples strange "speeder", as well as an apparently large land based vehicle, to even the house itself. They claimed they could even construct a doorway to access the home, even while it laid in this stored state. Again and again these two Muggles astounded him, as well as brought a great comfort in their support. Self-stored living accommodations, near untraceable means of transportation, and the ability to store any number of tools on one's person? These would be invaluable resources to the order.

After confirming with the parents about their departure, they had agreed to leave just before midday on the morrow, to give the family time to put their affairs in order. It was around this time that both Young Mister Nightingale and Miss Manson both returned via portal in the next room. The moment the two exited the portal, Jack Fenton Bellowed

"Danny-boy, better get ready, tomorrow the Fenton's are leaving to help a magic war!" The boy brought his free hand to his face in a groan, but gave his father a small smile regardless, apparently not at all surprised by his parent's acceptance to join the order.

Albus gave the boy a glance, outwardly he seemed calm and relaxed, but Albus could feel a seething discomfort brewing just from behind his mental barriers. The boy seemed fine, and as the evening progressed, seemed to grow more at ease, so Albus decided to let whatever had transpired during the two's meeting with their "associate" slide, for now. Still, He did notice a few stray feelings of worry emanating from Miss Manson, if it came to be a problem for the two, he would have to be insistent on learning the cause, he was to be their Headmaster soon after all.

As the night grew latter and latter, Mister Foley made his departure, along with Miss Manson, both to inform and ask permission from their respective guardians. The Master of time too took his leave with the children, to lead credence to the offer and help ease the parent's worries.

With a quick tap of his staff and a flash of blue, Time's warden dawned a more human guise, His facial structure remained the same but his pale blue skin had turned a mere pale Caucasian. His pupiless eye's became and an old, but bright pair of green as the blacked scar across his eye changed to a more human coloration, giving the spirt the look of an elder man.

His embroidered cloak had changed to a tan overcoat while his remaining clothing stayed relatively the same, excluding of course the spiritual glow it held before. Apparently this was the form the spirit had present himself as to the parents as the leader of the Coven, it seemed the Fenton's were the only muggle couple to know the true nature of the Covens leadership. The spirit and children said their goodbyes for the night, Miss Manson looking a little tense as she stepped out the door.

Before she left however, young Daniel walked up before her and whispered a few words to the girl. That had apparently cheered the young spirit master up as she gave a few light hearted chuckles, then gave a word of thanks and a quick hug to the boy, leaving the now apparently oblivious children a little red in the face. But their small moment was unfortunately brought to a halt as the Mister Foley had popped up between the two and said,

"intimacy before a war? How romantic!" the two quickly leapt apart, sufficiently more red in the face than before,

"but seriously, you two lovebirds keep at it, I've got a betting pool going and I can already hear all the …" That was as far as the boy got before being swiftly walloped by both his compatriot's staffs, red embarrassment turning to red frustration.

The time master gave his usual smirk and a quick chuckle before stepping up to the children. "As entertaining a scene this is, I'm afraid I still need mister Foley intact for the night, so we best leave," the veiled spirit turned to Albus and the others and said "I'll be sending an owl over so you may inform the rest of your order of the new arrivals, best not to startle them too much." Albus narrowed his eyes, that last comment held a bit of an ominous air about it.

"I'll be seeing you all off tomorrow, have a good night's sleep."

Mister Nightingale reentered the house as the spirit closed the door behind them, taking the children back home. Much of the group returned to the kitchen as the Fenton family began to clean for the night, but Albus spared a quick glance at the door. Miss Manson's trepidation of returning home had him concerned, he eyed Minerva next to him as she turned to him, a look of worry across her face. A small sigh ushered from his side as he turned to Mister Nightingale, stood next to him in the kitchens opening and looked at the front door over his shoulder,

"You don't need to worry about Sam professor, she's not in danger." He said softly, keeping so low as so that only he and Minerva could hear. "It's just things with her Family are complicated," He had turned to the door fully and gave a small sad frown. "Her parents weren't to … happy to learn about her magic."

Realization hit Albus like a wayward bludger as a regretful frown sat on his face. This certainly wasn't the first time a muggleborn's family wasn't so accepting of their kin's abilities, but it was always terrible when it happened. And from her parents no less, Albus gave a soft sigh himself, he couldn't judge the parents, at least not without knowing the circumstances. From what he could gather, young Samantha was cooping fairly well, with no evidence of any abuse at all, which was much better than some instances. It seemed communication was the main problem here, but if that were the case, perhaps some time away would do some good, at the very least placing her in a more supportive environment, though the Fenton's and coven seemed to be providing her ample amounts of support. Still, it was quite sad to see such refusal of a child's magic from their own parents, especially for such a talented young witch.

The kitchen was shortly cleaned as the Fenton parents escorted Albus and the others to the second floor guest rooms, one for Minerva and another for Albus and Severus to share, the couple graciously pulling a spare folding bed and linens for Severus to use as he offered Albus the main bed. Placed in front of the window of the room was a small writing desk, with a quick wave of his wand, he conjured a page of parchment, quill and ink and an envelope to send to Grimmauld to inform the order of their new recruits.

Shortly after finishing his letter, Albus turned his head to a peck at the window, an and fairly large, gray feather greater sooty owl was perched on the widow seal, a small black band baring the golden cog of the coven around its ankle. Albus offered the letter but when he offered the bird a few galleons for postage, the bird stepped away with a shake of his head. Albus raised an eyebrow, it seems the Time Master was willing to lend the owl for free. He gave a small shrug, well no pint in looking a gift horse in the mouth, with a quick nod of appreciation, the old owl took flight to London. After that, Albus settled in for the night, tomorrow was sure to be interesting.

(~)

Albus dared but one step closer, the power emanating from the otherworldly gateway was incomprehensible, the opening seemed to bend the natural Magic around it like nothing he had ever seen. He and his house heads may have passed through a number of entryways yesterday, but they hardly had time to analyze such doorways along the trip. Now that he stood directly before such an opening, he could marvel at the raw absurdity before him.

(~)

He and Severus had awoken to the morning sunlight peering through the guest room window and illuminating the space. After quickly dressing for the day, a quick knock at the door brought them both to its threshold. Opening the door, they found Mister Nightingale, dressed quite differently than before. This morning he wore loose blue jeans, red sneakers, a red shirt and a white zipper sweater, far more casual that his more battle oriented attire before. He still did wore the black blindfold, as well as kept his hair bound by cloth, but something stood out more predominantly, a chain necklace, tucked under his shirt showing only the upper chain around the nape of his neck. The boy offered a welcoming smile,

"oh good you guys are awake, Breakfast is almost ready downstairs," Albus instinctively reached for his wand, an action mirrored by Severus before the boy broke into a laugh "No, No, don't worry, we convicted mom to cook with normal appliances, she's actually a good cook when she doesn't use ectoplasm to 'speed up the process.'"

A sigh of relief came from both he and Severus as they followed the boy down the stair an into the kitchen, followed by Minerva and Miss Jazmine, who apparently was sent to fetch the Gryffindor head. At the table was an assortment of eggs, milk and pancakes, looking quite scrumptious. Along with the rest of the family was surprisingly the young Samantha Manson, dressed in a long sleeved black shirt with purple long pants detailed in black spider webs. On her side was a black and purple bag of holding, no doubt for her luggage and she was animatedly conversing with the youngest Fenton daughter.

Albus rose an eyebrow in concerned curiosity, it seemed her family eagerly agreed to letting her leave for London, which brought more worry than relief to him as he pondered the implications. Still, she seemed content for now, her shields were sufficiently strong that he could not sues out any brooding pains. Still his years of reading people had given him enough experience to know that the smile on her face was quite clearly genuine. He would, however, keep an eye open, such woes don't just vanish overnight.

Breakfast commenced quickly, the young Nightingale entering the conversation between his younger sibling and Miss Manson. Minerva and Jazmine taking the time to talked about the coming term along with any reading requirements need for the young witch's new station, and Severus willfully ignoring the rest of the going on's while eating as quietly and politely as possible. Albus did see him turn an eye to him as he engaged in an enlightening chat with The Doctor's Fenton. Much of the discussion was of the Fenton's asking both to the nature of the conflict with the dark lord, as well as asking of any necessary information they may need for their children's enrollment. Albus answered to the best of his ability, fortunately the family had a good amount of experience with the wizarding world, so the transition shouldn't be too difficult.

Eventually Albus turned the conversation towards the couple's work, he was eager to learn more potential aid the couple could provide, and was surprised when Jack Fenton offered to let him inspect the couple's lab while they moved around the town to finish their local affairs for the trip. He graciously accepted their kind offer, and as soon as the meal had concluded and the family preformed an appropriate clean up, the Fenton parents made for the front door. Soon after, the young Daniel and Samantha likewise left via portal, stating they had their own affairs to attend to. Then as soon as the two of them left, Miss Jazmine announced her departure, a parchment list of books conceived at breakfast with Minerva in hand, and tasked her youngest sibling with showing Albus and company to the Fenton lab before pulling out her wand and giving a quick pop of apparition.

The young Animagus groaned where she stood in the entry way of the kitchen, her panther ears drooping before she gave a suffering sigh and turned to Albus and the others,

"so, the lab's in the basement, just follow me."

The girl gave a short leap into the air and floated to a closed door within the kitchen, opening the door and turning on the lights for Albus and the others to descend the small stairway below. Albus ventured first, followed by the ever frowning Severus, along with Minerva with Miss Fenton in the rear, looking a little too jittery to be comfortable. But the child's nervous state would not denture him, for as Albus neared the basement door, tendrils of swirling magic began to seep from under the evident shielding of the lab below. Something in the Fenton's workshop of wonders was bending and twisting the natural magic around it like nothing he had seen before this trip, but with this past experience he had a good guess as to what this anomaly was. They had finally descended the steps, and with a short breath to steel himself, Albus calmly opened the door.

Albus wasn't quite sure what he had expected to see, but he was fairly certain he expected it to be much smaller. The room was massive, clearly beyond just the small square of land the building above resided, with a ceiling far higher than the houses geography would allow. Confused, Albus began to look around and then noticed a strange metallic trim around the entrance of the lab, The Fenton's had mentioned their skills in spatial distortion, apparently they had already implanted such methods before. The Lab itself was covered in large metallic chrome plating on the walls, with a large number of florescent lights keeping the room moderately well lit. across the room was a scattering of tables and computerized stations and devices that looked so alien to him that he couldn't even begin to fathom their function.

To the far right of the room was a metallic guard rail and near the far end nearest the door, just in front of the railing was another staircase to a lower level, and beyond that the rest of the room extended far off to the right. Coming to the railing, Albus looked over, just below was the floor beneath, also ending in a guard rail, but in this case, extending several feet farther than top floor. Below that was another floor that too extended beyond the upper floor, and so on and so on until about 6 flights down to the bottom floor. The lab was indeed vast, but the full size of the room meant little compared to the far right wall.

On the ground floor, built into the wall itself, was a massive metal archway that reached 3 floors high and taking near half of the walls width. The massive porthole was sealed with humongous chrome steel doors what where inundated with countless warning signs. The frame of the monolith was equally striped in warning yellow and black, but the wall surrounding it was covered in a sea of glowing neon green wiring, all connected to the metal monstrosity. The whole opening was a perfect circle, placed several feet from the ground, with a metal, railed walkway extending from the second from the bottom floor all the way to just a few feet shy from the massive doors. Perched in front of the walkway on the loft of the third floor was a large circular station, the Strange Craft the Fenton's had piloted docked atop.

As impressive a sight as the doorway was, it was the power just behind the door that chilled Albus to the bone. He could practically taste the energy raging behind those doors, the chaotic surge of power that invisibly bombarded the metal, as if the doors where strained against the blows of a surging tempest.

In the time master's halls, Albus felt nothing of the otherworldly realm, but that was due to the power of the spirit himself, whom must shield the occupants from the powers of the chaotic plane, but no such subtitles existed here, as Albus felt his very bones rattle with the low pitch of power emanating just behind those doors. Albus gave a quick glance behind him, to gauge the others reaction: Severus was keeping a valiant effort in maintaining his cold composure, but the cold sweet accumulating on his tighter than normal brow attested to his worry. And Minerva herself was not much better, keeping her a firm stance, but a clear look of trepidation crossed her face.

"So…," The groups attention fell on their floating young tour guide, who brought her right hand to rub the back of her neck, "This is the lab…" The waved a nervous hand across the room," and over there is the ghost portal," she gave a hollow chuckle and sheepish smile "but I guess I didn't need to tell you that,"

Her feet finally touched the ground as she began to slowly walk forward "Gives you guys the willies right? It gives all the coven guys that come over the creeps, but you get used to it."

Her voice was not filled with much confidence as she strolled past the group and over to the far guard rail.

"It used to be a lot smaller, but after mom and dad got a few tips from the coven and expanded this place, they enlarged the opening."

Despite her best effort, it was clear miss Danielle was uncomfortable, her feet shifted around and her speech spoke of an impatience that seemed to imply her going through the motions as quickly as possible. What could be bothering her? An easy answer may be the portal, but given her more intrinsic integration with the spectral energy, such a presence should feel comforting to her, yet here she stood, barley even glancing at the doorway. Albus spoke,

"Miss Fenton, I'd hate to impose, but you seemed … troubled by something," She turned her head, and held a look of quiet panic he had seen too often. It wasn't one of being caught for a misdeed, but caught with a misplaced burden, as if what weighed her down was something she thought was better left hidden, he had seen it often when talking to troubled or depressed student. True to form, the young animagus quickly set into a frown and looked away, mumbling quite denials all of which were swiftly quieted by his next question,

"if you wish, we could save the tour for another time, if there is something about the portal bothering you …" A practiced lead, meant to sound like a continuing thought, but solely serving to bring the answer to the forefront, and like many times before, the tactic worked like a charm.

"No, no, the portal doesn't really affect me, if anything it feels soothing, it's just…"

She gave a defeated sigh and for the first time fixed her gaze on the portal doors,

"I don't normally get this way around the portal, I mean, it's not like I spend to much time around it, and given how Danny thinks about it, and the whole thing with Vlad last night…"

Vlad? If she was referring to the events of the previous night, this Vlad might have been the spectral individual Young Daniel and Miss Manson spoke to the previous night. Another loud sigh from the girl broke Albus from his speculations,

"Don't get me wrong, Danny's never bad mouthed Mom and dad's work … well I mean a few jokes here and there, but never anything serious." The girl leaned forward to rest her elbows on the rail.

"But the portal? He avoids it like the plague, he'll still use it from time to time, but only when absolutely necessary, but that's not surprising considering the … accident."

Albus's mind went alight, He remembered Miss Jasmine's words of the event that brought her siblings strange magic's, an accident in this very lab. He had pondered as to the source of Mister Fenton's rather powerful abilities, but a portal between the realms? In some aspects, it made sense, given the boy's ability to freely walk the realms, such a rift would yield unbelievable power, but to survive that? And then there was the girl's wording, she spoke of the event as it pertained to her brother, separate from herself, as if there was another source for her power, but then how …

His contemplation was broken by a third sigh from Miss Fenton, but this one held a certain melancholy tone that the others lacked as her head dipped down and she broke eye contact with the portal,

"He doesn't talk about it out load, but I think he regrets what happened…" a small strained note entered her voice as the young animagus lifted her head again to the portal.

"and look, I'm not saying he's wrong for feeling that, I certainly can't judge him for it, it's just …" The young Fenton paused a moment, as if trying to find the right words, and turned to Albus, her face almost pleading

"… It may have been a mistake, but a lot of good came from it right? if it didn't happen, I … certain things wouldn't have happened, and those things need to happen … right?"

she paused only for a second before turning again the portal in front of her, her word quieting as uncertain sadness crept in.

"is it so wrong, to make mistakes?"

And like that, Albus's burning drive from answers washed away, his steeled resolve to find the truth behind the sibling's powers dissolved in the face of the young girls pleading face. All his questions, his hunger for the truth, all of it would have to wait. A troubled child stood before him, one who as of last night was a student of his school and he her head master, and it was time to act like her head master.

"perhaps …" He said, in as warm a note as he could, causing the troubled Fenton to turn her head in shock to him,

"but then that is only if it was truly a mistake," confusion supplanted shock as she leveled him a look of befuddlement, made quite adorable with the quirk of her strange panther ear. The look caused a small chuckle to escape his lips as with a warm smile, he walked to stand a few feet beside her right, in front of the railing, a hand resting of the rail as he cast a gaze to the metal doors himself.

"In my experience, what we often call mistakes are in fact lessons, or in this case, experiences, that may or may not be necessary in our lives."

The girls head dropped, but not in sadness but in contemplation, her attention drawn back to Albus as he turned his head and addressed her,

"do you know what makes them necessary Miss Fenton?"

she simply gave quick shake of her head back and forth,

"It's what we gain from them, if we learn or gain nothing from them, if we do nothing to grow from them, then they are mistakes,"

Albus turned fully to her, held his hands together and gave her a gentle smile, "but if we learn from these experiences, if we grow, then they are the necessities of our lives."

The girl's face morphed into gradual realization, not wide eyed epiphany, but a small note of contentment,

"The events themselves may have been painful, something a person may never wish to experience again, but often we see the results of these happenings reflected in the person, and with their feelings on the matter."

He gave a small pause as took a step forward and laid a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder.

"I may not be able to speak for Mister Nightingale, but if what you said is true, then I'd say there wasn't much of a mistake, was there?"

His new student gave a small laugh as she quickly brushed her eyes and returned his smile.

"I guess not,"

Albus smile grew as he lifted his hand from her shoulder,

"you know, you're pretty good at this professor,"

"well," he said, a hint of humor in his voice, "one doesn't get a beard this aged without a good amount of experience."

The youngest Fenton gave a small chuckle as he turned to look at his staff, Severus had apparently spied a variety of strange colored liquids to inspect as Minerva was viewing a board covered in strange and intricate calculations, although he did eye her looking at both him and the young women and giving a quick smirk. His attention was brought back to their guide,

"you know, if you guys want, I can give you a closer look at the portal, even open up the doors to let you get a good look."

And like the second breath of a storm, curiosity thundered through Albus again, as he saw both Severus and Minerva break from their exploration to gauge his response. He turned to the girl and began to stroke his beard in one hand, keeping the other behind his back, his face visibly looking mildly intrigued as he felt the small repressed tremors of excitement quiver his person.

"If you would be so willing, Miss Fenton, it would be a privilege."

She gave a nod as she once again hovered in the air and lead Albus and company across the room and down the flights of stairs, as they passed, Albus saw flight after flight of strange objects and devices that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. They reached the second to last floor and walked past the docked Fenton craft to a small station of consuls and safety glass at the entrance of the pathway to the portal, which was blocked by a waist high metal gate.

The young animagus floated to a console on the left of the gate, tapping away at the strange illuminated surface interface before turning to the group,

"ok, the doors are ready, first let me put up the ghost shield, just to be safe,"

Turning back to her station, she tapped again at the strange hologram as set of green lights and a strange metal pitched tone sounded off as an emotionless voice stated,

" _Fenton ghost shield activated."_

Soon, a small section of the metal rim of the large doorway folded into the surrounding wall and was replaced with a green glowing trimmed metal apparatus that covered the entire circumference of the large metal device. It gave a loud hiss of air as it set in place as a loud wine, similar to that given by the Fenton's strange craft, sounded as large near translucent green half lens appeared covering the portal. It jetted out by just a few meters, passing through the metal pathway, which seemed completely unaffected by the strange energy. He remembered his discussion with the Fenton couple before, the shield was designed to only affect ectoplasm, meaning it would not impede his path, though Albus doubted he'd have the nerve to approach that close to the doorway.

The stray beeping noises coming from Ms. Fenton's tapping brought his attention to her, as she once again turned to the group.

"The shield will keep anything coming in that shouldn't so you guys can get as close as you want, ready?"

Albus turned to his companions, Severus made only a slight nod of acknowledgment, which meant he would be willing to follow, Minerva gave a nervous glance up to the enormous door's before giving a quick nod herself. He turned back to Ms. Fenton who took a quick glance at the group before turning back to the device and tapping away at the screen.

A loud alarm blared before the same metallic voice from earlier sounded off,

" _attention, portal blast doors are opening, please keep a safe distance until the doors are completely open."_

Slowly, with the hum of machinery, the blaring of warning signals, and the swelling noise of air shifting under hydraulic compression, the large metal doors began to slide open. Albus stood deathly still, his breath caught in his lungs as the door open to reveal a massive, swirling vortex of green and black as the whole lab was bathed in in an eerie tone of light. Even after everything he had seen yesterday, the portal was a breath taking sight, the shifting and ebbing pool of green and black looked similar to those held within the Time master's office, only at a much greater scale.

And the power …

The gate before them dropped into the floor, the young Fenton child telling Albus and his professors that they could proceed, but Albus did not respond, he merely stepped forward, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. He was unable to speak, unable to blink, all he could do was feel as the full power of an ethereal realm came to bare, even as the green, near invisible shield helped keep such power held in.

He felt as if his being had been submerged, drowned and pressed by some substance or force that was all encompassing. His every step felt as if wading through an unseen liquid, though with the absence of any real resistance, his breath controlled and soft, as if afraid of the unknown trading space with breathable air. He felt his very skin vibrate with a soundless hum of energy as empty gusts of wind seemed to billow out from this tear in reality, it was as if he was walking through an invisible and viscous mist, uncatchable by the eye, and offering no friction, but permeating and surrounding his entire being.

This was beyond him, Albus thought as he finally came to a stop halfway, head tilted up as he merely gazed into the massive vortex. All he had seen, all he had ever learned, the greater secrets of magic, the hidden realities of the world's mysticism, the true depth of power's potential and possibilities…

All of it useless to even comprehend what he beheld; and some small part of him, some rational voice still able to function in is mind, helped him fully realize something he had been coming to grips along this trip.

It helped him recognize his own foolish pride.

As chaotic as magic could be, those who practice it have ironically found great reassurance in its nature. A spell cast is the promise of a desired effect, a potion brewed is done with the knowledge of the properties of its ingredients. Magic has rules, magic has laws, and by consequence, magic gives answers, which in turn gives comfort. But comfort, in time, breeds arrogance, which in time can spread and corrupt. And so it became that magic not only had answers, but had all answers. That the solution of all problems was solved by magic, and if ever magic couldn't solve it, it was not a true problem.

It was flawed minds set, but one that unfortunately found sway in the magical community at large, unintendedly creating biases in so many, himself included.

Back during Tom's first uprising, He had pondered on whether to more directly involve the muggle authorities. True, fudge and his office had given fair warning to the muggle minister, but a stranger from a strange world talking of hidden threats was not exactly what one would describe sufficient context. But, like the Ministry at large, Albus had decided against it, justifying his actions by assuming that the muggle world was not ready for such direct involvement from their magical counterparts. To him, the Muggles were something to protect, all the while envying their ever growing progress as his seemed so rigidly static.

The mysticism of his situation left him as his hand dropped to his sides, a tired breath pushing out his lungs, and once again feeling his age creep up to him. It seems all his insightful talk was good enough to fool even himself, making him forget just how much of an old fool he real was.

"Professors! I just got a call from Mom, their back and ready to load up!"

The Youngest Fenton yelled down the catwalk, breaking Albus from his self-reflection. He collected himself and proceeded back with his two staff to their young guide. Passing the walkways threshold, Miss Fenton made a few more strokes across the console as the entrance gate rose and robotic speaker sounded again.

" _Attention, Portal doors closing, please stand clear."_

Albus gave one last intrigued glace as the massive doors of the portal began to close around the rift, stray gusts of black and green dissipating into the air as that doors came to a full close and the sound of locking machinery and rising steam echoed out. Quickly, the group made their way up the lab and back on the ground floor living room, With the Fentons and company waiting. Along with them were the time master (in his human guise), Mister Foley and Miss Manson, who was accompanied by a rather elderly looking woman using a strange motorized muggle device for travel.

The time master stepped forward, "both Mister Foley and Miss Manson have received permission to attend you school headmaster. Mister Foley will be staying behind for a few more days so his parent's may make the proper arrangements. As for Miss Manson, she will be accompanying you across the pond."

Albus had figured as much, while the girl was doing an admiral job of hiding her discomfort, Albus could see it as she tightly griped her black and purple lined bag of holding. Still, the situation as not all bad, as the elderly woman at her side gently took the girls tense hand and offered her a warm smile that soothed the young witch as she returned the gesture. Albus gave a small smile, it seems the girls home was not as toxic as he had feared, the support of any family, even if only one, was a great blessing. The older woman let go of Miss Manson's hand and steered to the group of teachers.

"hello there, my names Ida, Sam's grandmother."

She offered a warm grin and hand to each professor, "I'm just here to see my Sammy off, but before I do, let me warn you …"

The warm smile of the woman folded into a stern glare, her voice firm despite the age in her voice, "if my granddaughter gets hurt on YOUR watch, then I don't care if I have swim across, I WILL make you regret it."

"grandma …" The girl's cheeks reddened a touch with embarrassment at her Grandmother's threat, but Albus couldn't help but smile and gave the older woman a firm nod, he couldn't be offended by a show of genuine concern. The elder Mansion gave a strong grin and a nod back, steering her strange device around,

"that goes for the other tikes as well, specially that Danny boy, can't have anything happen to him before I get great grandbabies."

"NANNA!" The previously small blush the young girl had was now a firm red across her face, mirrored by the young Nightingale as the whole room gave a good chuckle (minus Severus, who merely rolled his eyes). It was clear where the young witch had inherited her forward attitude.

The Fenton parents lead the group outside the home, into the early morning sun and onto the eerily quiet streets. Albus had made a note of it before, but the surrounding apartments around the Fenton family home seemed to be vacant. When he had inquired as to why, Ms. Fenton had explained that the volatile nature of their profession and home-life had driven most of their neighbors further into the city or to outright leave the haunted grounds altogether. Upon reflection, he admitted that it would be rather obvious as to why no one would live at what could be the spiritual epicenter of the city, but he refrained from commenting seeing a spark of disappointment in the mother's tone.

He did take solace that at least this isolation would be the perfect cover from prying eyes, and soon the family would find themselves in more agreeable company.

The small group where across the street, facing the home as Jack Fenton raised his right arm and tapped at the device on his wrist. Soon, the familiar sound of cracking thunder issued and a portal blazed to life above them. From out of the portal gently floated the same strange craft as before, hovering just above the group's collective heads.

The two spectrally inclined muggles turned to the rest of the group as Jack Fenton addressed them all,

"we'll be putting Fenton works in storage now, you might wanna shield your eyes, cuz this can get pretty bright!"

The couple slipped on their hoods, or more specifically, their protective eye wear, as the Fenton patriarch made a few more taps on his device. Suddenly, a bright, green light enveloped the house and a blast of hot air from the sudden burst of energy hit the group. Albus brought up his hand and squinted, bearing witness as the strange house gave one more bright flash as the house vanished, leaving only and empty lot in its place.

"Astounding," Albus said, wide eyed, but giving a wide smile and a few strokes of his long beard.

Jack Fenton rounded, sliding off his hood along with his wife with his ever present exuberant grin, "thanks! It took forever to get the Fenton dimensional storage tech to work, can't tell you how many times we got stuck in some parallel dimension before we got a handle on it!"

Albus Gave a few owlish blinks before giving a few good natured chuckles as he shook his head, he would have to adjust to the couple's attics soon if he wanted to maintain his near omnipotent persona.

The door to the craft opened as the strange metal platform began to lower to take the group up again, all the while several goodbyes were shared, between the three teenage friends, the group as a whole to the soon to be arriving Mister Foley and a warm Farwell hug shared between the Manson's. The three spiritually trained children gave a formal farewell to their ghostly mentor, as he gave a warm grin, telling each of them that he expected them to maintain their training.

During the Exchange, the time master approached, "may I have a moment Albus, I have something I'd like to ask of you."

Albus responded with a curious expression as the disguised spirit reached into the underlining of his coat and pulled out a large, old tome. The cover was a brown-red leather that seemed to be peeling at the gold thread embroidery on the edge, the pages were tanned yellow with age. But none of that warranted as much attention as the symbol made in silver embedded into an embroidered circle in the middle.

It was a triangle, with a circle embedded within, bisected by a straight line,

The sign of the deathly hallows.

Albus forcefully quelled any visible shock as he took the book from the spirits outstretched hand, He felt Severus intense gaze over his shoulder as he opened to the first page of the book. Inside were a few lines that read,

" _I leave this record of all I have learned with my master, as I bequeathed to my son my Ill-favored_

 _Treasure,_

 _So that one day, when it is needed most, my line may gain more from my knowledge than my misfortuned brothers,_

 _Sincerely, Ignotus Peverell."_

Albus simply stared at the text, mind racing before turning his head back as the time master spoke,

"This book contains a last record of Ignotus, a documented list of tricks and spells he acquired over his life. He entrusted the book to me, so that I could pass it along to his decedent when the time was right."

Albus gave a silent swallow as he stared back to the book and contemplated these implications.

It was evident the spirit intended that the book be passed onto Harry, he was the last in the line of the third brother, though he doubted that Ignotus knew of the current crisis before he gave …

… _his master …_

Albus couldn't hold back his gasp, only quell into a silent breath as his head shot back to spirit, who merely gave an amused smirk and a small chuckle,

"where did you think _the rest_ of my coven got the idea to where cloaks?"

Albus's breath hitched as he could almost physically feel his mind race, and the more he thought, the more these nonsensical revelations began to make sense.

The timeline fit, the coven of Cronos was still based in England at the time, and it would also greatly explain as to why little no actual record of the man had ever been found, given the secretive nature of the coven itself.

Another small chuckle from the Time master broke his concentration, "it was quite funny, now that I think about it, to see him so diligently try to evade a dear old friend of mine for so long."

Ignotus … evading … Albus felt his blood chill to an icy cold; he had always just assumed that part of the story nothing more than a fanciful explanation to the artifact's existence.

A legend … nothing more… until now…

"speaking of which,"

The spirit looked Albus dead in the eye, "I've recently had the pleasure of speaking to him, and while he has nor regrets as to the fate of the cloak, he has expressed great concern towards … possibilities regarding the wand."

It took every bit of self-discipline Albus had not to flinch, he made a quick turn of the head to gauge his potions master, who did well in convincingly calm disposition, but Albus could feel Severus's nerves holding by a thread.

The Spirit smirked once more, "not to worry, we agree that the wand is in capable hands at the moment, and while we both have our reservations, our respective positions entail that we cannot personally do much to inferior."

Those words should be comforting, but Albus could feel no such thing when faced with the wickedly amused expression of the time master. The spirit may by wearing the skin of a human, but that did not denture his powerful and otherworldly presence.

"For now, my friend is content on let things play out, but I will warn you of this Albus Dumbledore. By the end of all this, my dear friend plans to retrieve at least one of his gifts."

The spirits disguised eyes filled with a glowing, deep red,

"With or without the owner's consent."

Albus stilled for a moment, the object in question feeling heavy in the pocket of his robe. A part of Albus, one that he had long hoped to quell for many years, flared in rebellion, but he had experience in ignoring this side of himself. Strangely enough, even with the clear threat of possibly meeting the old friend of time, Albus could only feel relief.

Even with its power, even if it entailed surrendering the result of a youthful passion, there had been far too much blood paid in tribute in its storied past. And, if its creator wished it returned, who was he to argue.

Another tired breath of air left his lips as he dipped his head, the tension before dropping from his shoulders as he nestled the precious tome under his arm.

A hand landed on Albus's shoulder as he turned up to look, the time master had walked next to his flank and placed his hand on his shoulder, his previously dark smirk changing into a warm a grateful smile. It had been a great many years since Albus had seen a look like that, not of concern or of reverence, but simply one of understanding, and for once in a long time, he took comfort in the gesture.

The sprit passed as he and Severus moved to follow, Severus seeming to have regained enough composure to return to his disinterested frown, while taking a few scarce glances at the book in Albus's hand.

They had rejoined the main group as they all readily boarded the Fenton's vessel, offering the sprit, the boy and the older woman a few parting waves as they ascended to the vehicles door.

Quickly, they made their way to their respective seats, the Hogwarts professors sitting together on one of the benches as the children sat in the other. The Fenton parents took the helm as they all collectively activated their safety harnesses, Albus and company remembering how from their last flight and the children needed no such instruction.

The couple worked at their station for a few more seconds before Jack Fenton spoke out,

"Looks like London's got a good amount of cloud cover, so we'll pop the portal just above the cloud line … ok, engaging cloaking … alright, LONDON HOE!"

Giving one more exuberant shout as the portal opened before them, the Fenton's steered the craft through the portal as Albus's vision was colored green once again.

(~)

 **And that chapter is finally done**

 **I fear I might be making Dani to vulnerable, at least, without good reason. As I thought about how Dani might be dealing with her situation, and rationalized that one problem she might be facing is self-doubt, or rather a lack of self-assurance. I just hope I did well enough to convey my idea I this chapter.**

 **A lot of you have been noticing I might have over-powered Danny, both here and in my bleach story. Rest assured, I'm not just going to make either version untouchable, I know that can get old fast, so they won't be perfect. But I do kind of want to stress his power a tad, as I feel this lends itself into Danny's character (or at least my interpretation of it.) It sort of a superman complex, a non-human with potential to do so much good and bad trying to live a human life. Again, I have NO intention of making him Jesus, I've read those kind of fic before and they just don't work.**

 **Finally, and I'm just going to make this clear now, I WILL NOT BE MERGING MY TWO STORIES IN ANY WAY. I see people ask this before with authors of different crossovers and I just want to get this out of the way with both, there will be no cross-crossover with ANY other story I make UNLESS I specifically intend for them to merge.**

 **Again, really sorry this took so long to get out, and I promise to have my bleach out soon.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	6. UPDATE

**Ok, time for the one thing we all hate, update chapters, sorry but first off I want to assure people**

 **I HAVEN' T ABANDONED MY STORIES**

 **I am sorry I haven't updated in months, but I've been really busy with school, grabbing and extra semester for my more advanced classes for my major, I'm also getting more involved with a research project.**

 **I am sorry, I haven't updated in a while but my schooling kind of is my priority right now.**

 **But again, I HAVEN' T GIVEN UP ON THESE STORIES**

 **But unfortunately I can't quite give them my attention yet,**

 **My collage works of a little bit of a weird semester track system, so my current semester doesn't end until July. But once I'm off, I've got two months off and I plan to dig into these chapters then.**

 **I'm sorry for my lack of updates, its it's a stressful time right now.**

 **So while it might take some time, just know this story will be continued.**

 **Thank you for your patience.**


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